Simple blood-spot sampling with nested polymerase chain reaction detectionfor epidemiology studies on Brugia malayi

In the absence of a suitable Brugia malayi antigen detection assay, PCR rem ains one of the more sensitive alternatives to Giemsa-stained thick blood f ilms for B. malayi detection. The need for refrigerated storage and transpo rtation of blood has limited the use of PCR for large-scale epidemiology st udies in remote endemic areas. Here we report simple finger-prick blood-spo t collection, a one-tube DNA template extraction method and the development of a B. malayi-specific nested PCR assay. The assay was tested on 145 fiel d samples and was positive for all 30 microscopy-positive samples and for a n additional 13 samples which were microscopy-negative. (C) 1999 Australian Society for Parasitology. Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights re served.