US 12,545,964 B2 · Detection of infectious agents from environmental air dust

Abstract

Embodiments of the present disclosure are directed to systems and methods for collection and analysis of environmental air dust (EAD) within an individually ventilated cage rack (IVR) environment for detecting pathogens. The method includes collection of an EAD sample by a collection media, isolation of a plurality of nucleic acids (e.g., RNA and/or DNA) representative of one or more infectious agents from the EAD sample, optional reverse transcription of RNA to cDNA if the isolated nucleic acids contain RNA, amplification of the cDNA and/or DNA (e.g., by polymerase chain reaction (PCR)), and assay interpretation. Optionally, the EAD sample may be analyzed with one or more other sample types (e.g., fecal pellets, oral swabs, body swabs, tissue, etc.) to improve detection of low-copy organisms.

Claims34

Dependent claims

A method for identifying one or more infectious agents carried by environmental air dust within a single cage for housing an animal, the environmental air dust released by agitation of soiled bedding disposed within the single cage, wherein the single cage is not within an individually ventilated cage rack system, the method comprising:

disposing collection media within the single cage containing the soiled bedding and not containing the animal;
agitating the single cage to release the environmental air dust comprising a test sample from the soiled bedding, while the single cage is containing the soiled bedding and not containing the animal;
collecting the test sample within the environmental air dust on the collection media during agitation of the single cage;
isolating a plurality of nucleic acids from the test sample, the nucleic acids being representative of the one or more infectious agents;
amplifying at least one of the isolated plurality of nucleic acids;
and
analyzing the amplified at least one nucleic acid to identify a presence or absence of the one or more infectious agents.

4 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Detection of infectious agents from environmental air dust

Life of this patent

Detection of infectious agents from environmental air dust

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims34