Together with Agri-Food & Veterinary Authority of Singapore (AVA), Temasek Polytechnic (TP) has developed a novel detection kit that is able to detect multiple shrimp pathogens simultaneously in a simple, rapid and cost-effective manner. 

Shrimp pathogens are usually detected using real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assay using Taqman probes which are expensive.  The conventional PCR method is also time-consuming and tedious and needs post PCR processing to see results.  Moreover, in case of a disease outbreak, farms and regulators would need to conduct different sets of tests which would be time-consuming and expensive.   

AVA’s and TP’s technology allows detection of five types of pathogens within 2 hours.  This potentially cuts detection turnaround time by two-thirds.  The specificity and sensitive performance of the assay is also at least on par with current PCR technologies.  The kit is also very economical and cost effective. A patent under the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) has been filed to protect this invention.