Coronaviruses roadmap:
Diagnostic Tests
Roadmap for the development of diagnostic tests for coronaviruses
Download 202410 Draft Coronavirus Diagnostic Development_Final1
Fit-for-purpose diagnostic tool
Dependencies
Diagnostic
Research Question
- Development of rapid, reliable diagnostic test for detection of CoVs and CoV infections in animals including strains with zoonotic and/or pandemic potential and including pen-side tests
Research Gaps and Challenges
- Detection and typing of different coronaviruses with different genome constellation
- Commercial market of diagnostic tests
- Detection of immune responses for different host species
- Easy sampling for wildlife
- Accessible costs
- Utility/sensitivity of in-field diagnostic solution
- Understand which coronaviruses are relevant and with zoonotic potential
- Develop different type of diagnostic depending on the end user (e.g. government or farmers) and the aim ( e.g. Clinical Diagnostics vs. Surveillance- normal/healthy vs ill vs. recovered)
- Pan coronavirus essays
- Select the best matrix for non-invasive test to avoid licencing issues (e.g. aeresol or faeces)
Solution Routes
- Development of Point of Care Test (POCT) panCoV tests for use in multiple host species (companion animals, agricultural/livestock and wildlife). Find the Agent (FTA) card to transport genome without cold chain, for coronaviruses this needs validation/accreditation
- Lab-in-a suitcase PCR/nanopore sequencing
- Development of bioinformatics pipelines from raw reads to report for short and long reads coronaviruses sequence analysis
- Improved laboratory standard operation procedures (SOPs) sequencing CoV genomes
- Testing for low resource settings that don’t require infrastructure
- Metagenomic approach to virome/pathobiome could be utilised to characterise pathogens when the traditional diagnosis has not been reached
- Co-design of tools with farmers/final users – consider end users
- Rapid and cheap testing to distinguish lineages
- Detection of antibodies in postmortem samples (wildlife)
- POCTs with high specificity and sensitivity, possibly a multispecies lateral flow panCoV test for surveillance, followed up by lineage specific testing, either as advanced pen-side or laboratory tests
Dependencies
- Policies that allow faster approval of new technologies across national borders
- Flexible regulations/standards based on updated scientific evidence
- Biobanking for coronaviruses
- Capacity for quick scale up of products in emergencies
- Overcome political and misuse challenges
State Of the Art
- A detailed list of diagnostic test available in animals can be found here: List of Animal Health Diagnostics – Diagnostics For Animals
Projects
What activities are planned or underway?
Differential susceptibility of SARS-CoV-2 in animals : Evidence of ACE2 host receptor distribution in companion animals, livestock and wildlife by immunohistochemical characterisation
Planned Completion date 26/07/2021
Participating Country(s):
Netherlands
Veterinary Biocontained facility Network for excellence in animal infectiology research and experimentation
Planned Completion date 28/02/2023
Participating Country(s):
Europe