Diagnosis of feline leukaemia virus infection by semi-quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction.
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.
Pinches
Mark D G
MD
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>
Helps
Christopher R
CR
Gruffydd-Jones
Tim J
TJ
Egan
Kathy
K
Jarrett
Oswald
O
Tasker
Séverine
S
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
D012367:RNA, Viral; D012191:Retroviridae Proteins