The palm-size device can tell if a person or animal has contracted the H5N1 form of the virus in less than 30 minutes.

And it can do so even at the earliest stages of the disease, when a victim has yet to show any symptoms.

Said Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology research scientist Juergen Pipper, who led the effort: 'The answers you will get are: Am I infected? If yes, how severe is it?'

What sets it apart from others which are already available commercially is that it is a self-contained lab on a chip.

It can be used by medical or aid workers to detect the H5N1 virus directly from throat swab samples. Chicken dropping samples can also be tested for the virus.

The device uses the gold-standard of tests - polymerase chain reaction (PCR) - to make photocopies of genetic material so that even minute amounts can be detected.

Tests have shown that it is around 10 times faster than available tests, yet 40 to 100 times cheaper, the researchers said, because each sample droplet is so minuscule that the cost for reagents drops.

The research is timely, given that bird flu often strikes in rural areas such as backyard farms. Said research scientist Lisa Ng of the Genome Institute of Singapore, another team member: 'The device can be easily taken to the field, where it will be able to detect the virus the moment a person is infected, rather than having to wait for 10 days or so for symptoms to appear.'

This will allow the authorities to act faster, said Dr Ng.

Bird flu is entrenched in the region, with countries such as Indonesia struggling to curb it. At least 85 Indonesians have died from the disease, the highest in the world.

The World Health Organisation, which is coordinating the global response to human cases, has said that the next influenza pandemic would likely be of an avian variety, and it could affect some 1.5 billion people.

Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology principal coordinator Masafumi Inoue, one of the co-authors and the leading inventor of the H5N1 detection kit currently being used in hospitals, said that work is ongoing to allow the device to test multiple pathogens at a time, such as Sars and other respiratory viruses.

'A potential pandemic may not come merely from H5N1, as such viruses are notorious for mutating and gene reassortment. So, it will be critical to cast the net wider,' he said.

Commenting on the effort, Dr Timothy Barkham, senior consultant, pathology and laboratory medicine at Tan Tock Seng Hospital, said that it was exciting work.

'I would be very interested to try it out,' he said.

The local effort has been published in the prestigious Nature Medicine scientific journal.

The work of biologists and engineers from various Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*Star) institutes, among others, took about 11/2 years.

And at first, it was as though the two groups were speaking in different languages, Dr Ng said of the communication efforts between hardcore engineers and biologists.

'It was a very interesting experience, and as we got to know each other better, we became more 'bilingual',' she said.

ailien@sph.com.sg