MONITORING FOOT AND MOUTH DISEASE VIRUS IN Al BOAR STUDS USING LIGHTCYCLER~(TM) REAL-TIME PCR

摘要

In an animal infection experiment with Classical Swine Fever (CSF) it was shown that the virus can be isolated from semen and that semen might play a role in spreading the disease. After the CSF outbreak in 1997 it was decided that it was necessary todevelop fast and sensitive screening methods to detect Foot and Mouth Disease Virus (FMDV) in semen. For that purpose a real-time Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) tests using LightCycler1~(TM) technology was developed. The PCR test was validated using clinical relevant samples (semen of infected boars) obtained through animal experiments. Using Reverse Transcriptase (RT)-PCR it was shown in an animal experiment that FMDV could be detected in the semen of FMDV infected boars as soon as two days after infection without the boars showing clinical signs of the disease. The goal of this paper is to describe the experiment in which this fast and highly sensitive and specific FMDV RT-PCR was used to monitor the FMD-free status of Pig Artificial Insemination Centres during the outbreak of 2001 in The Netherlands.