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Abstract

Flinders Technology Associates (FTA) cards are increasingly accepted as an accurate method for nucleic acid detection, including testing for the presence of various avian diseases. However, the accuracy of FTA cards for detection of Mycoplasma gallisepticum (MG) in wild birds has not been published. Traditional techniques for testing MG in birds include serum plate agglutanation (SPA), hemagglutination inhibition (HI), polymerase chain reaction (PCR), and enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) all of which are time consuming and require significant financial investment into specialized equipment. We tested the efficacy of using FTA cards to detect MG in wild bird carcasses collected in the Atlanta, Georgia region. MG is primarily a respiratory disease, so we extracted trachea, lung, and duodenum tissue for testing. We compared tissue samples imprinted onto FTA cards to the same tissue samples processed using traditional molecular methods. We tested 204 individual birds via 506 paired samples for a total of 1,012 samples. Our results indicated a 96.2% similarity between FTA cards and traditional tissue sampling for the presence of MG in wild birds. The use of FTA cards for sampling wild birds for diseases would increase the ease of sample collection while maintaining sample accuracy.

Acknowledgements

We are grateful for the contribution of Birds Georgia for partnering with us on this research and providing the bird specimens. We are also grateful for the many undergraduate research students who have worked on and contributed to this project; Heather Korey, Courtney Hill, Magan Free, Keelan Geraghty, Neil Patel, Melanie Majors, Vivica Pressley, Sawda Islam, Royia Hope, Madison M Miller, Abigail Skinner, James Hall, Farah Haddad, Jenny Sanchez, Catherine Cook, Hasten Vael, and Gabe Rodriguez.

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