title: Diagnosis of feline leukaemia virus infection by semi-quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction.
abstract: In this paper the design and use of a semi-quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction assay (RT-PCR) for feline leukaemia virus (FeLV) provirus is described. Its performance is evaluated against established methods of FeLV diagnosis, including virus isolation and enzyme-linked immunoassay (ELISA) in a population of naturally infected cats. The RT-PCR assay is found to have both a high sensitivity (0.92) and specificity (0.99) when examined by expectation maximisation methods and is also able to detect a large number of cats with low FeLV proviral loads that were negative by other conventional test methods.
authors.affiliation: University of Bristol, School of Clinical Veterinary Science, Langford House, Langford, Bristol BS40 5DU, UK. m.pinches@bristol.ac.uk <m.pinches@bristol.ac.uk>
authors.forename: Mark D G
authors.initials: MD
authors.lastname: Pinches
authors.forename: Christopher R
authors.initials: CR
authors.lastname: Helps
authors.forename: Tim J
authors.initials: TJ
authors.lastname: Gruffydd-Jones
authors.forename: Kathy
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Egan
authors.forename: Oswald
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Jarrett
authors.forename: Séverine
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Tasker
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002415:Cats; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay / Q000662:veterinary; D005256:Leukemia Virus, Feline / Q000235:genetics* / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D016582:Leukemia, Feline / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000821:virology*; D011533:Proviruses / Q000302:isolation & purification; D012367:RNA, Viral / Q000235:genetics* / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D012191:Retroviridae Proteins / Q000097:blood / Q000302:isolation & purification; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction / Q000379:methods / Q000662:veterinary*; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity
chemical_list: D012367:RNA, Viral; D012191:Retroviridae Proteins