Agriculture 4.0: Rapid, label-free nano-electrochemical based detection of bovine viral Diarrhoea virus (BVDV) and antibody (BVDAb) in serum

In farming and veterinary medicine, diagnostic tools enabling early detection of infectious disease in cattle could play a pivotal role in the control and eradication of bovine viral diarrhoea (BVD). Early identification of cattle persistently infected with virus (BVDV) through the availability of electronic test results to a veterinarian on-farm, would enable immediate diagnosis and isolation of an animal from a susceptible herd. A silicon chip-based biosensor platform, containing six gold nanoband electrodes as six individual sensors, was developed in this study to conduct detection of both bovine viral diarrhoea virus and antibody disease targets molecules. We demonstrate that the nanoband sensors have sufficient sensitivity and specificity for serological detection of both targets, and a low time-to-result (20 minutes). All examined serological samples were benchmarked against, and in complete agreement with, gold standard commercial ELISA data. These findings are of particular significance for potential on-farm point of use applications, where rapid analysis times and specificity are required to permit early diagnostics by veterinarians.