Fast identification of Yersinia pestis, Bacillus anthracis and Francisella tularensis based on conventional PCR.

Rapid and accurate diagnostic tools for detection and identification of Y pestis, B. anthracis and F. tularensis are essential for timely initial appropriate treatment of exposed individuals, which will be critical to their survival, as well as for reduction of the public health impact and the spread of the disease. The paper presents application of fast polymerases and fast dry electrophoresis in conventional PCR as an alternative for real-time PCR application for detection and identification of the above pathogens. The proposed method takes less than 50 min. to obtain final results of the tests and is cheaper than real-time PCR.