The Development of a Loop-Mediated Isothermal Amplification Method (LAMP) for Echinococcus granulosis Coprodetection

We have previously developed a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assay for detection of Echinococcus granulosus infection, which proved very sensitive and specific for identification of infected dogs. We have now developed a loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) assay, which amplifies the same genomic repeated sequences of E. granulosus for coprodetection. This assay enabled detection of a single egg in fecal samples and showed high species specificity for E. granulosus with no cross-amplification of DNA from closely related helminths, including Echinococcus multilocularis. Because the method does not require thermocycling for DNA amplification, or electrophoresis for amplicon detection, it can potentially be used for premortem identification of E. granulosus-infected dogs to enable large-scale surveys in endemic countries where highly specialized equipment to undertake PCR analysis is rare.