Fire blight remains a serious threat to commercial apple production in the USA and worldwide. Other diseases and spray damage can result in fire blight-like symptoms that can lead to misdiagnosis and affect disease management strategies. Accurate and timely detection of the fire blight pathogen, Erwinia amylovora, is extremely important to deploy appropriate and timely measures to reduce fire blight epidemics in commercial apple orchards. We tested two commercial lateral flow immunoassays (AgriStrip®, and Pocket Diagnostics kit), Loop mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP), and quantitative PCR (qPCR) to diagnose E. amylovora infected samples in lab and field settings. The AgriStrip® and Pocket Diagnostics kits were able to detect actively growing bacteria up to ×106 cfu/ml bacterial concentration. Pocket Diagnostics kit had less specificity and showed positive tests for E. pyrifolia in addition to E. amylovora. The LAMP assay showed high specificity for E. amylovora and was able to detect up to ×103 cfu/ml bacterial concentrations. The qPCR assay was also able to detect bacterial cells up to ×10−3 cfu/ml bacterial concentration with highly specific E. amylovora detection. Grower surveys and comparative cost-benefit analysis indicated that immunoassay kits are less expensive, easier to use, and require less technical expertise for on-site fire blight diagnosis than LAMP and qPCR. However, the choice of a specific diagnostic assay depends on the time, sensitivity, and specificity required for the detection of fire blight and its management. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1007/s42161-020-00644-w) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

中文翻译：

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横向流动免疫分析、LAMP 和定量 PCR 诊断苹果园火疫病的比较评价

火疫病仍然是美国和全世界商业苹果生产的严重威胁。其他疾病和喷雾损害可导致类似火疫病的症状，从而导致误诊并影响疾病管理策略。准确及时地检测火疫病病原体梨火疫病菌，对于及时采取适当措施减少商业苹果园的火疫病流行极为重要。我们测试了两种商用侧流免疫测定（AgriStrip® 和 Pocket Diagnostics 试剂盒）、环介导等温扩增 (LAMP) 和定量 PCR (qPCR)，以在实验室和现场环境中诊断梨火疫病菌感染的样本。AgriStrip® 和 Pocket Diagnostics 试剂盒能够检测活跃生长的细菌，细菌浓度高达 ×106 cfu/ml。Pocket Diagnostics 试剂盒的特异性较低，除了梨火疫病菌外，梨叶肠病的检测呈阳性。LAMP 检测显示出对梨火疫病菌的高度特异性，并且能够检测高达 ×103 cfu/ml 的细菌浓度。qPCR 测定法还能够检测高达 ×10−3 cfu/ml 细菌浓度的细菌细胞，具有高度特异性的梨火疫病菌检测。种植者调查和比较成本效益分析表明，与 LAMP 和 qPCR 相比，免疫测定试剂盒更便宜、更易于使用，并且现场火疫病诊断需要的技术专业知识更少。然而，特定诊断测定的选择取决于火疫病检测及其管理所需的时间、灵敏度和特异性。电子补充材料 本文网络版（10.