Duck spleen necrosis disease (DSND) caused by Novel Duck Reovirus (NDRV), is an emerging infectious disease that causes severely threaten to duck industry. Currently, the popular conventional RT-PCR technique for detecting NDRV is time consuming. So, it is essential to develop a rapid and accurate molecular diagnosis techniques of the pathogen for the purpose to effective control of the disease. In our study, a simple, rapid and reliable detection method was developed by an isothermal reverse transcription-recombinase polymerase amplification (RT-RPA). The RT-RPA primers were designed targeting the S3 gene of NDRV, and its specificity was verified by testing a series of other waterfowl pathogens. A total of 20 field and experimental samples from infected ducklings were tested by the RT-RPA and compared with the results of the conventional RT-PCR and the quantitative RT-PCR simultaneously. The RT-RPA method could detect as little as 4.14 × 102 copies/μl of the target gene in the sensitivity analysis, which was 10×higher sensitive than the conventional RT-PCR. The major advantage of the RT-RPA method is that it could be performed as an isothermal reaction at 37 ℃ and completed within 20 min. In addition, no cross-reactivity was detected with other waterfowl-origin viruses. Also, the amplified products could be visualized faster, without the gel electrophoresis, by adding the SYBR Green I and observing them under an ultraviolet light. The newly developed RT-RPA method offers a simple, rapid and accurate for rapid detection of NDRV, which especially useful in on-site facilities and resource-limited areas.
Keywords: Duck spleen necrosis disease; Isothermal gene amplification; Novel duck reovirus; RT-RPA; Rapid and visual detection.
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