Rapid diagnosis of infectious agents of equine reproductive loss

Equine reproductive loss due to infectious agents impacts significantly on the Australian Thoroughbred horse breeding industry. To counter this, the current project will develop and evaluate rapid nucleic acid tests for two important causes of equine reproductive loss in Australia, Equine Herpes Virus1 (EHV1), a recognized cause of equine abortion, and Chlamydia psittaci, an emerging cause of reproductive loss as well as a zoonotic disease of veterinarians and stud workers. In recognition of the need for rapid diagnosis, innovations in (i) sample preparation to enable direct testing of a clinical specimen without DNA extraction; (ii) reagent prepackaging to enable onestep assay preparation; and (iii) amplicon detection, allowing visualization of positive results by eye using colorimetric change, will be incorporated into the assays allowing them to be performed in a veterinary practice or potentially, stableside.