Rapid and accurate diagnosis of influenza virus
infection is essential for quick responses for both human and animal health. The Alere™ i
Influenza A&B is a novel isothermal
nucleic acid amplification kit that can detect and differentiate between
influenza A and B viruses in human specimens in approximately 15 min. In the present study, the performance of the Alere™ i
Influenza A&B kit was evaluated for its ability to detect
avian influenza virus in chickens. The kit was able to detect representative
avian influenza virus strains (
hemagglutinin subtypes H1-
H16, including the recently isolated H5 and H7 highly pathogenic
avian influenza viruses), and the detection limit of the kit for these viruses varied between 10-1.4-102.1 50% egg-infective dose per test, which is higher than the analytical sensitivity of the
antigen detection immunochromatography kit ESPLINE® A
INFLUENZA. In experimentally infected chickens inoculated with a highly pathogenic
avian influenza virus strain A/chicken/Hokkaido/002/2016 (H5N6),
viral RNA was detected in the tracheal and cloacal swabs. These results indicate that this kit has the potential to be used as a rapid screening test of influenza A virus
infection in chickens.