Establishment and preliminary evaluation of an RT-ERA combined with CRISPR/Cas12a assay for detection of H5 and H7 influenza viruses

Background/objectives

Novel influenza A viruses (NIAV) infection is a zoonotic acute respiratory disease. The H5N1 and H7N9 subtypes cause high mortality, posing major public health threats. This study aimed to establish rapid, field-deployable subtype-specific nucleic acid detection assays for H5 and H7 by integrating reverse-transcription enzymatic recombinase amplification (RT-ERA) with CRISPR/Cas12a. Two separate reactions are required per sample.