Use of the polymerase chain reaction in epizootiological studies of viral diseases

摘要

The polymerase chain reaction (PCR) has become a powerful diagnostic tool in veterinary virology. The research team at the Department of Virology of the National Veterinary Institute, Uppsala, Sweden, was among the first groups to develop and apply routine diagnostic PCR assays in veterinary virology, to develop PCR diagnostic kits and to introduce assays of molecular epizootiology, based on comparative nucleotide sequence analysis of the PCR products. In the paper the experiences of 10 years of application of these techniques are summarized, with special regard to technical developments, i.e. simplified methods of sample preparation, precautions to avoid false positive or negative results, comparison of standard and nested PCR and simple assays of visualization.