Recent methods and biosensors for foodborne pathogen detection in fish: progress and future prospects to sustainable aquaculture systems

Abstract

The aquaculture industry has advanced toward sustainable recirculating systems, in where parameters of food quality are strictly monitored. Despite that, as in the case of conventional aquaculture practices, the recirculating systems also suffer threats from Aeromonas spp., Vibrio spp., Streptococcus spp., among other foodborne pathogens infecting farmed fish. The aquaculture pathogens are routinely detected by conventional PCR methods or antibody-based tests, with the detection protocols confined to laboratory use. Emerging assay technologies and biosensors recently reported in the literature open new opportunities to the development of sensitive, specific, and portable analytical devices to use in the field. Techniques of DNA/RNA analysis, immunoassays and other nanomolecular technologies have been facing important advances in response time, sensitivity, and enhanced power of discrimination among and within species. Moreover, the recent developments of electrochemical and optical signal transduction have facilitated the incorporation of the innovative assays to practical miniaturized devices. In this work, it is provided a critical review over foodborne pathogen detection by existing and promising methods and biosensors applied to fish samples and extended to other food matrices. While isothermal DNA/RNA amplification methods can be highlighted among the assay methods for their promising analytical performance and suitability for point-of-care testing, the electrochemical transduction provides a way to achieve cost-effective biosensors amenable to use in the aquaculture field. The adoption of new methods and biosensors would constitute a step forward in securing sustainable aquaculture systems.

Keywords:

• Biochemical signal transduction
• fish pathogens
• nanomolecular assays
• point-of-care biosensors
• rapid methods
• sustainable aquaculture systems

Acknowledgments

The authors are thankful to comments and discussions from Dr. Hans-Christian Teien and colleagues Haakon Karlsen and João Simões.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant nos. 61650410655, 61531008, and 61950410621), Research Council of Norway, HAVBRUK2 program (proj. no. 268017/E40), RFF Oslofjordfondet (proj. nos. 285575 and 296654) and RFF Hovedstaden (project no. 299429). Chongqing Research Program of Basic Research and Frontier Technology (proj. no. cstc2018jcyjAX0474) and Chongqing Municipal Education Commission - Science and Technology Research Program (proj. nos. KJZD-K201800802 and KJZD-K201900802) are also acknowledged for the financial support.