Detection and differentiation of wild-type and vaccine strains of canine distemper virus by a duplex reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction

ABSTRACT

Canine distemper virus [CDV] is the cause of canine distemper [CD] which is a severe and highly contagious disease in dogs. In the present study, a duplex reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction [RT-PCR] method was developed for the detection and differentiation of wild-type and vaccine strains of CDV. Four primers were designed to detect and discriminate the two viruses by generating 638- and 781-bp cDNA products, respectively. Furthermore, the duplex RT-PCR method was used to detect 67 field samples suspected of CD from Guangdong province in China. Results showed that, 33 samples were to be wild-type-like. The duplex RT-PCR method exhibited high specificity and sensitivity which could be used to effectively detect and differentiate wild-type and vaccine CDV, indicating its use for clinical detection and epidemiological surveillance