A novel SERS-based lateral flow assay for differential diagnosis of wild-type pseudorabies virus and gE-deleted vaccine

Pseudorabies virus (PRV) is a pathogen that causes an acute infectious disease in pigs, which could lead to huge losses to the farming industry. The Bartha-K61 strain of PRV, commonly used as a gE-deleted vaccine, does not always protect against the wild-type virus infection effectively. Therefore, the prompt detection of viral infection in gE-deleted vaccine vaccinated pigs is crucial for in-time measures to prevent the spread of diseases. In this study, we developed a Surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy(SERS) based lateral flow assay based on antigen-antibody reaction to meet the demand. Our method was rapid (15 min), sensitive (LOD: 5 ng mL −1 ), selective for wild-type PRV detection, and quantitatively or semi-quantitatively (DLR: 41–650 ng mL −1 ) compatible. The detection results from this method were consistent with results from the gE-specific PCR, indicating that this SERS-based lateral flow assay could be used as a new tool to differentially diagnose wild-type PRV and gE-deleted vaccine.