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Fast and Reliable Detection of Legionella Aqua Screen®: the ideal alternative to the traditional culture method

Due to the rising risk of legionella infections associated with increasing mechanization control analysis of process water becomes more and more important globally. In order to make a rapid and reliable quantification of legionella possible, Minerva Biolabs developed Aqua Screen®. Aqua Screen® is a complete water test system (based on water filtration, DNA extraction and PCR analysis) with many advantages in relation to the classical culture method.

Your Advantages

High Sensitivity and Precision
The Aqua Screen® system detects both viable but not culturable (VBNC) and culturable legionella. Altogether less than 500 legionella particles (or genome units) per litre water can be detected. (Depending upon the environmental condition 500 genome units correspond to 0.001-0.5 CFU/ml water). The system supplies reproducible results and correlates with traditional methods. Aqua Screen® corresponds to the French standard AFNOR XP T90-471 and was intensively validated.

The Aqua Screen® system is used with conventional filtration units (e.g. Sartorius CombiSart®). After filtration of the water sample extraction of legionella DNA is performed with the Aqua Screen® Fast Extract kit. The extraction procedure is simple and requires the usal laboratory equipment. Aqua Screen® Fast Extract is the method of the choice in order to prepare high-quality DNA for the subsequent PCR analysis.

For real-time PCR analysis we offer two variants of our Aqua Screen® PCR Detection Kit: Aqua Screen® Legionella pneumophila and Aqua Screen® Legionella spp for the specific detection of Legionella pneumophila and/or of all pathogenic Legionella species (spp). The PCR assays are extremely sensitive (Quantification Limit: 25 genome copies/test) and provide reliable and precise results due to the integrated controls and a superior master mix system.