Implementation and validation of a sensitive PCR detection method in the eradication campaign against Aleutian mink disease virus.
Aleutian mink disease virus (AMDV) is a severe progressive disease causing multiple different clinical syndromes in mink. In Denmark, the disease is notifiable and under official control. The control programme, based on serological screening, has confined successfully AMDV to the northern part of Denmark. However, re-infections and new introductions of virus into farms require a confirmatory virological test to verify the positive test results of single animals and ultimately to investigate disease transmission. A one step PCR amplifying a 374-base fragment of the NS1 gene of AMDV was compared to the counter-current immune electrophoresis (CIE) routinely used in the serological screening programme. Mink organs (n=299) obtained from 55 recently infected farms and 8 non-infected farms from 2008 to 2010 were tested by PCR, and the results were found to have a high correlation with the serological status of the mink. The relative diagnostic sensitivity of the PCR was 94.7%, and the relative diagnostic specificity was 97.9% when read in parallel with the CIE. PCR positive samples were sequenced and phylogenetic analysis revealed high similarity within the analysed AMDV strains and to AMDV strains described previously.
Division of Poultry, Fish and Fur Animals, National Veterinary Institute, Technical University of Denmark, Aarhus, Denmark. trje@vet.dtu.dk
Trine H
TH
Jensen
Laurids S
LS
Christensen
Mariann
M
Chriél
Ase
A
Uttenthal
Anne Sofie
AS
Hammer
D000453:Aleutian Mink Disease / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000821:virology; D000454:Aleutian Mink Disease Virus / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D000818:Animals; D016000:Cluster Analysis; D017931:DNA Primers / Q000235:genetics; D004279:DNA, Viral / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics; D003718:Denmark; D014644:Genetic Variation; D008907:Mink; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010802:Phylogeny; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction / Q000379:methods*; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D017385:Sequence Homology; D017361:Viral Nonstructural Proteins / Q000235:genetics; D014773:Virology / Q000379:methods*
D017931:DNA Primers; D004279:DNA, Viral; D017361:Viral Nonstructural Proteins