The survey of porcine teschoviruses, porcine circovirus and porcine transmissible gastroenteritis virus infecting piglets in clinical specimens in China

Abstract

A multiplex PCR assay was developed and evaluated for its ability to simultaneously detect three viral infections of swine. Specific primers were carefully selected from articles published for each of the following three viruses: porcine circovirus type II (PCV2), porcine teschovirus (PTV) and porcine transmissible gastroenteritis virus (TGEV). Each target produced a specific amplicon with a size of 353 bp (PCV2), 168 bp (PTV) and 499 bp (TGEV). The sensitivity of the multiplex PCR using purified plasmid constructs containing the specific viral target fragments was 6.60 × 10(2), 8.43 × 10(2) and 7.30 × 10(2) copies for PCV2, PTV and TGEV, respectively. Among 127 samples which were collected from Heilongjiang, Jilin, Henan and Guangxi provinces, the single infection of PCV2, PTV and TGEV was 99.21, 46.88 and 65.35 %, respectively, and co-infection of the three viruses was 26.77 %. In conclusion, the multiplex PCR has the potential to be useful for routine molecular diagnosis and epidemiology.