Abstract
BACKGROUND: Echinococcosis and schistosomiasis, caused by parasitic worms, pose significant threats to millions of people in the world. Rapid and effective pathogen detection and epidemic control by public health authorities are urgently needed. OBJECTIVES: In this study, we aimed to develop rapid on-site detection method to detect echinococcosis and schistosomiasis. METHODS: Recombinase polymerase amplification (RPA) was utilised to examine its efficacy of detection of echinococcosis and schistosomiasis. FINDINGS: The detection probes for RPA were created through comparing parasitic genomes from international genomic data and the sequences generated by our group. We established an optimised RPA on-site testing platform, which significantly reduces the detection time (less than 30 min) and simplifies the operation (free of expensive equipment) as compared to traditional polymerase chain reaction (PCR) method. MAIN CONCLUSIONS: This RPA detection platform in our study for identifying echinococcosis or schistosomiasis pathogens would be greatly applicable for epidemic investigation, border screening, and early clinical diagnosis.