August 30, 2016 SPADA Meeting Book

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.

Variola Working Group SMPR: Tailor Panel to Assay Based on Bioinformatics

Controls:  Positive control:

 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