Are point of management assays relevant for food safety in the poultry industries?

The current pandemic has ensured considerable attention has been paid to the role of the approach termed ‘Point of Care’ diagnostics. Indeed, the term ‘RAT’ (Rapid Antigen Test) and RAT hunting now have totally different meaning to that widely understood before 2020. In the veterinary field, including food safety, the term used for these types of rapid in situ assays is ‘Point of Management’ (POM) assays. In this article, we describe our recent research on low cost, low technology, in-house style POM assays in the field of food safety as applied to the poultry industries. We then discuss what are the advantages and disadvantages of these low cost, low technology POM assays.