Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
Development of real-time RT-PCR for the detection of low concentrations of Rift Valley fever virus.
- Journal:
- Journal of virological methods
- Year:
- 2014
- Authors:
- Maquart, Marianne et al.
- Affiliation:
- CIRAD · France
Plain-English summary
Recent outbreaks of Rift Valley fever (RVF) in Madagascar and the Comoros islands have made it hard to detect the virus in animals like zebu, sheep, and goats after these outbreaks. Researchers developed a new test called real-time RT-PCR that can find very low amounts of the RVF virus in blood samples. They tested this new method on samples collected between May 2010 and August 2011 and found that it identified 38 positive cases out of 2,756 samples, while the older reference method only found 5. This new test is a useful tool for checking for the virus in animals, especially during times when the virus is not causing widespread illness. Overall, the new RT-PCR test worked well for detecting the virus.
Abstract
In recent years, Madagascar and the Comoros archipelago have been affected by epidemics of Rift Valley fever (RVF), however detection of Rift Valley fever virus (RVFV) in zebu, sheep and goats during the post epidemic periods was frequently unsuccessful. Thus, a highly sensitive real-time RT-PCR assay was developed for the detection of RVFV at low viral loads. A new RVF SYBR Green RT-PCR targeting the M segment was tested on serum from different RVF seronegative ruminant species collected from May 2010 to August 2011 in Madagascar and the Comoros archipelago and compared with a RVF specific quantitative real time RT-PCR technique, which is considered as the reference technique. The specificity was tested on a wide range of arboviruses or other viruses giving RVF similar clinical signs. A total of 38 out of 2756 serum samples tested positive with the new RT-PCR, whereas the reference technique only detected 5 out of the 2756. The described RT-PCR is an efficient diagnostic tool for the investigation of enzootic circulation of the RVF virus. It allows the detection of low viral RNA loads adapted for the investigations of reservoirs or specific epidemiological situations such as inter-epizootic periods.
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Search related cases →Original publication: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24120571/