Keystone Labs Inc.

Purpose

Avian Influenza (AI) is a contagious viral infection that can cause severe illness and mortality in gallinaceous poultry (chicken, turkey, quails). It also has the potential to cross over to mammals, including companion animals such as cats and dogs. AI is currently diagnosed in the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) laboratories by molecular methods. This process is time consuming, labour intensive and requires expensive laboratory equipment. Keystone Labs Inc. aims to develop an easy-to-use, rapid and affordable lateral flow test for the detection of AI in the field. The proposed method is a polymer-based optical sensing device that detects AI virus and at the same time, H5 and H7 subtypes, with the same sensitivity and specificity as current molecular diagnostic tests used in the CFIA laboratory.