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Mission of the SPADA Variola Working Group
(2016)
• The Variola Working Group of the Stakeholder Panel on
Agent Detection Assays (SPADA) was tasked to develop
voluntary consensus standards required for evaluation of
tools that detect
Variola virus
DNA from aerosol collection
devices for DoD applications. … The standards will :
• Support test and evaluation of Variola-detection tools for DoD
applications
• Provide guidance to industry and other capability developers
for development of future detection tools that DoD may solicit
It is expected that any detection result from a tool
validated against the SPADA Variola standards will be
confirmed by the Poxvirus Laboratory at the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention.
Controls:
Positive control:
Variola Working Group SMPR:
Tailor Panel to Assay Based on Bioinformatics
Low but easily detectable concentration
Monitor performance of entire assay
Recommended include a technique to confirm positive control is
not cause of positive signal generated by sample
Negative control:
Confirm assay does not produce false positives
Inhibition control:
Specifically confirms sample or sample matrix does not prevent
assay to detect target organism