Biosensors for the Detection of Plant and Animal Diseases: Recent Advances and Future Perspectives

Diseases affecting plants and animals have a huge cost globally and threaten food security and economies. Pests and pathogens account for almost forty percent (≈$220 billion) of global crop losses each year, and livestock diseases cost (e.g. $358 billion per year) hundreds of billions of dollars globally. Culture, ELISA and PCR are reliable, but time-consuming, laboratory-based, and costly. In this context, biosensors, devices that integrate the biological recognition element, the bioreceptor, with a physical transducer, have emerged as a game-changer in terms of fast and sensitive detection of disease and field deployable applications. New developments such as the use of nanomaterials, CRISPR-Cas, microfluidics and AI have enhanced the portability and performance of the biosensor. However, there are still some difficulties in reagent stability, validation, cost and regulation. The review outlines the principles of biosensor design, includes representative examples of plant and animal pathogens and discusses the various metrics of different biosensor platforms, and outlines some case studies of commercialization. The article highlights the innovations in precision diagnostics of disease that have occurred over the past few years and introduces some of the trends expected to appear in the future. The overall innovations of biosensors can alter the disease management course in the general terms. By allowing for early detection of an outbreak on site, which can stop an outbreak or help improve yield or One Health surveillance.