Ultrasensitive Staphylococcal Enterotoxin B Quantum Dot-Based Lateral Flow Immunoassays for Rapid Testing of Poultry Rinsates and Milk.

The use of highly fluorescent quantum dot labels in lateral flow test strips enhances sensitivity of these rapid, facile and popular handheld diagnostic devices over traditional colloidal gold or latex particle labels. In this work, we demonstrate apparent detection limits of 1.25 ppb (ng/ml) for the important foodborne biotoxin staphylococcal enterotoxin B (SEB) in chicken rinsate and 78 ppb (ng/ml) in whole milk both by visual and objective fluorometer readings with optimized lateral flow (LF) red quantum dot-based test strips in 15 min. The reader is a multifaceted fluorescent lateral flow camera-based system for fluorescent LF development and testing. While there may be SEB assays with even lower limits of detection, this work demonstrates that QDs were both less prone to matrix effects and were highly sensitive detection tags that can be combined with the speed and ease of use of LF test strips to aid in rapid detection of foodborne illness.