Detection of bluetongue virus genome segment 6 sequences by RT-PCR.

ABSTRACT

Reverse transcription-PCR (RT-PCR) technique was adopted to amplify a 101 basepair nucleotide sequence of bluetongue virus (BTV) genome segment 6. The specificity of the amplicon was determined by its approximate size in 3% agarose gel electrophoresis, digestion with restriction enzyme MspI, dot-blot hybridization and cycle sequencing. The technique was found to be suitable for detection of bluetongue virus in infected cell culture and clinical samples.