MAIN

©1994-2008 All Rights Reserved. Online Journal of Veterinary Research. You may not store these pages in any form except for your own personal use. All other usage or distribution is illegal under international copyright treaties. Permission to use any of these pages in any other way besides the before mentioned must be gained in writing from the publisher. This article is exclusively copyrighted in its entirety to OJVR publications. This article may be copied once but may not be, reproduced or re-transmitted without the express permission of the editor

OJVRTM

 

Online Journal of Veterinary Research©


 Volume 12 (2):70-75, 2008

PCR detection of canine distemper virus from biological fluids

 

Amaral HA1, Cortez A1, Richtzenhain  LJ1 , Funada MR2,  Soares RM1, Durigon EL2, Larsson MHMA1.

 

1School of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Science, University of São Paulo and 2Institute of Biomedical Sciences, University of  São Paulo, Brazil.

ABSTRACT

 

Amaral HA; Cortez A; Richtzenhain LJ; Funada MR; Soares RM; Durigon EL; Larsson MHMA. PCR detection of canine distemper virus from biological fluids,  Online J Vet Res., 12 (2):70-75, 2008. Canine distemper is a highly contagious disease affecting dogs worldwide, often inducing severe neurological signs. The aim of this study was to evaluate different biological samples (conjunctival and genital swabs, urine sample and peripheral blood mononuclear cells) by reverse-transcription –hemi-nested –polymerase chain reaction (PCR). All collections were taken from dogs with neurological manifestations, examined at the Veterinary Hospital at the School of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Science, University of São Paulo, from October 2004 to May 2007. Only dogs that had not been  vaccinated or that were vaccinated more than 50 days before the samples were collected were included to exclude any false-positive results from vaccine virus. Fragments of nucleoprotein genes canine distemper virus were detected by hemi-nested PCR in 43 (86%) of the 50 dogs included in the study. A larger number of positive results were obtained from genital swabs with 40 (80%) positive samples, followed by 37 (74%) from conjunctival swabs, 37 (74%) from urine samples and 33 (68%) peripheral blood mononuclear cells. Conjunctival and genital swabs, and urine samples proved to be excellent choices of clinical sample because of their high detection sensitivity, convenient sample processing and less risk to the animals. Sensitivity in detecting positive results was increased by testing two clinical samples (genital or conjunctival swab and urine sample), especially in dogs that had not shown extra-neural signs or those in the convalescent and late stage of canine distemper.

 

Key words: canine distemper; conjuctival swab; dogs; genital swab; hemi-nested-PCR; RT-PCR; urine

MAIN

 

FULL-TEXT(SUBSCRIPTION/ARTICLE)