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The LAMParA Kit: PhilFIDA's field-applicable abaca virus detection kit
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Viral diseases significantly reduce abaca fiber production and fiber quality. Bunchy top and mosaic viruses are the most critical, requiring early detection for effective management. Point-of-care diagnostics allows for the detection of these viral diseases in the field. The loop-mediated isothermal amplification assay (LAMP) allows for the molecular detection of pathogens in the field without the use of sophisticated equipment.
The LAMP assay for detection of BBrMV in abaca was developed by Koh et al. (2020). Despite the good analytical and diagnostic performance of the assay, it was not yet packaged as a portable diagnostic kit.​​​​​​
This study developed and validated the portable Lampara sa Abaca (LAMParA) kit for detecting Banana bract mosaic virus (BBrMV), a leading cause of mosaic disease in abaca. The kit includes a portable battery-operated water bath, the lyophilized LAMP mix, collection tube with buffer, micropestles, dropper and the positive and negative control setups to validate the field assays. The assay was enhanced in terms of incubation temperature, amount of lyophilized LAMP mix and amount of crude extracts for optimized field assay. Currently, the kit is being used at several abaca plantations, where it has effectively identified BBrMV-positive abaca plants in the farmers' fields. LAMParA Kit empowers abaca farmers enabling them to conduct virus detection on-site. This is the first LAMP-based point-of-care testing kit developed for the detection of BBrMV not only in abaca but also in banana.