NOTE Virology A New High-Speed Droplet-Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction Method Can Detect Bovine Respiratory Syncytial Virus in Less than 10 Min

ABSTRACT. The polymerase chain reaction (PCR) has been widely used for diagnosis of infectious diseases of domestic animals. Rapid detec-tion of respiratory pathogens of cattle is useful for making therapeutic decisions. Therefore, we developed a new genetic-based method called droplet-real-time PCR, which can detect bovine respiratory syncytial virus (BRSV) within 10 min. Our droplet-real-time PCR markedly reduced the reaction time of reverse transcription-PCR while maintaining the same sensitivity as conventional real-time PCR, and it can be used as a rapid assay for detection of BRSV. Furthermore, our method is potentially applicable for rapid diagnosis of almost all infectious diseases, including highly pathogenic avian influenza virus. KEY WORDS: bovine respiratory syncytial virus, domestic animal, droplet-real-time PCR, infectious disease. doi: 10.1292/jvms.13-0357; J. Vet. Med. Sci. 76(3): 477–480, 2014 Rapid and accurate diagnosis of infectious diseases of domestic animals is especially critical for preventing disease spread. Although nucleic acid amplification diagnostic tests using the real-time PCR [6] are widely used to check in-fectious diseases [13], real-time PCR takes a considerable amount of time to obtain the results (at least several hours). A more rapid method is desirable for treatment and contro