Performance Assessment of Three Commercial Assays for Direct Detection of Bacillus anthracis Spores

Bacillus anthracis, the cause of anthrax, has been used as a bioterrorism agent. Because the isolation and identification of B. anthracis by culture can take days, first response units (haz-ardous materials [HAZMAT], firemen, police, and hospital personnel) desire a quick and easy test that can be done in the field to detect possible B. anthracis contamination (1, 4). To our knowledge, there are no peer-reviewed published data on commercially available kits that could guide first responders in their search for such rapid detection methods. We tested three lateral flow immunoassay kits that are designed to test for B. anthracis at 104 to 105 spores per sample: (i) Anthrax Bio