This is a short communication manuscript entitled, “Rapid Viability (RV) PCR Protocol for Detection of Francisella tularensis” to be published in a peer-reviewed journal. This pathogen survives for many days in the environment and water. It is a very slow growing pathogen and can take several days to detect using the traditional microbiological culture methods. Therefore, a high-throughput RV-PCR protocol was developed and optimized by the EPA ORD’s National Homeland Security Research Center (NHSRC) to relatively rapidly detect F. tularensis. The RV-PCR method combines relatively shorter sample enrichment in growth media, and highly specific and sensitive PCR assay-based detection and identification of F. tularensis. Using this method, results can be obtained in 36 hours as compared to several days by the traditional microbiological culture methods. This manuscript contains summarized data from multiple experimental results to show the method performance in various experimental conditions mimicking a real-world interference material. The data has been extracted from the final report for the project on Optimization of a Rapid Viability (RV) PCR Protocol for Detection of Francisella tularensis in water.

This dataset is associated with the following publication: Kane, S., S. Shah, and T. Alfaro. Rapid Viability Polymerase Chain Reaction Method for Detection of Francisella tularensis. JOURNAL OF MICROBIOLOGICAL METHODS. Elsevier Science Ltd, New York, NY, USA, 166: ., (2019).