Grant: Applied Research and Development Grants - Level 1

North Island College (NIC), the BC Shellfish Growers Association (BCSGA) and the BC Centre for Aquatic Health Sciences (BC CAHS) will collaborate to develop a rapid screening assay for Norovirus (NoV) in the cultured oyster, Crassostrea gigas, in order to protect human food safety and provide market stability for the shellfish industry in BC. The technological building block is the adaptation of a very involved and prohibitively expensive RT-qPCR that quantitatively measures the amount of NoV in samples. For practical purposes of screening, the presence/absence of the virus is more valuable as a screening tool and also as an indicator of harvest timing. Therefore, the test will be optimized for high performance and sensitivity with multi-level controls for quality assurance and performing a proficiency panel to evaluate its accuracy. There are considerable technical challenges associated with the assay adaptation because the virus cannot be cultured on cell lines, rather, a surrogate virus must be used. The use of multiple internal and external controls takes up valuable space within the assay as do standard curves used to determine amounts of virus present. NIC and BC CAHS researchers have a track record of streamlining assays while maintaining integrity of the process, and robustness of the assay.The test will be used as an early warning method for testing oyster samples from British Columbian shellfish growers. The assay will also help answer questions regarding the source, range, and distribution of the NoV in the marine habitat through epidemiological investigations.