AOAC international certification validates Biótica's Legipid Legionella Fast Detection Test

The AOAC international certification has validated Biótica's MP4-Hunter. The system developed by the company settled at the Science Park in the Universitat Jaume I de Castellón (Spain) enables to perform up to 40 Legionella tests per analyst in an hour.

The Legipid® Legionella Fast Detection Test achieves this speed thanks to an analysis technique based on capture and disclosing that enables to detect the presence of pathogenic bacteria in the water without making it grow.

"Unlike classical process that is based on culture of the organism and needs around ten days to get results, the Legipid test takes just one hour to undertake 40 determinations per analyst, which provides an important flexibility to laboratory operation and results in significant cost savings for laboratories and users", according to Guillermo Rodríguez, Biótica's scientific director.

Since its creation in 2005, Biótica has conducted R & D tasks and its product has been continually improved to develop the device MP4-Hunter, an easy laboratory system that incorporates a platform for 20 trials at a time while being feasible the use of two platforms per a single analyst to perform up to 40 tests in just one hour.

By regulation, laboratory analysis, especially in the case of pathogens such as Legionella, must meet certain requirements, including the evaluation and certification of the test by a competent, independent and prestigious third party.

Nowadays, the Legipid system is the only test internationally certified by AOAC for the determination of Legionella, which means a very important endorsement for laboratories to benefit from the use of these rapid techniques that contribute to open doors to the incorporation of the test in countries with a Spanish-like legislation.

Biótica's commercial director, Mireia Lázaro, stresses the significant work that is being done nationwide, mainly informing authorities about these scientific advances "since nowadays the Spanish Royal Decree that regulates Legionella analysis is being reviewed and we intend to find a gap in Spanish legislation to foster fast techniques like ours".

In Spain, figures reveal that in the period 1999-2009 501 outbreaks of Legionnaires' disease were reported and 3,402 people were affected, 2,918 of which were hospitalized and 138 died. Since then and to date, the number of outbreaks of Legionella has been maintained and even has slightly increased.

With this quick detection technique, the company located in Espaitec enables to define preventive strategies that reduce the risk of infection, since they identify promptly the need for treatment. In case of an outbreak, this would decrease the number of affected people to quickly locate suspect focal points.