title: Dried fluid spots for peste des petits ruminants virus load evaluation allowing for non-invasive diagnosis and genotyping.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Active surveillance of peste des petits ruminants (PPR) should ease prevention and control of this disease widely present across Africa, Middle East, central and southern Asia. PPR is now present in Turkey at the gateway to the European Union. In Bangladesh, the diagnosis and genotyping of PPR virus (PPRV) may be hampered by inadequate infrastructures and by lack of proper clinical material, which is often not preserved under cold chain up to laboratories. It has been shown previously that Whatman® 3MM filter paper (GE Healthcare, France) preserves the nucleic acid of PPRV for at least 3 months at 32°C.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In this study, we demonstrate the performances of filter papers for archiving RNA from local PPRV field isolates for further molecular detection and genotyping of PPRV, at -70°C combined with ambient temperature, for periods up to 16 months. PPR-suspected live animals were sampled and their blood and nasal swabs were applied on filter papers then air dried. Immediately after field sampling, RT-PCR amplifying a 448-bp fragment of the F gene appeared positive for both blood and nasal swabs when animals were in febrile stage and only nasal swabs were detected positive in non-febrile stage. Those tested positive were monitored by RT-PCR up to 10 months by storage at -70°C. At 16 months, using real time RT-PCR adapted to amplify the N gene from filter paper, high viral loads could still be detected (~2 x 10(7) copy numbers), essentially from nasal samples. The material was successfully sequenced and a Bayesian phylogenetic reconstruction achieved adequate resolution to establish temporal relationships within or between the geographical clusters of the PPRV strains.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This clearly reveals the excellent capacity of filter papers to store genetic material that can be sampled using a non-invasive approach.
authors.affiliation: Department of Livestock Services, Dhaka, Bangladesh. ataur.bhuiyan@yahoo.com.|Department of Pathology, Bangladesh Agricultural University (BAU), 2202, Mymensingh, Bangladesh. ataur.bhuiyan@yahoo.com.
authors.forename: Ataur Rahman
authors.initials: AR
authors.lastname: Bhuiyan
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, Bangladesh Agricultural University (BAU), 2202, Mymensingh, Bangladesh. emdad001@yahoo.com.
authors.forename: Emdadul Haque
authors.initials: EH
authors.lastname: Chowdhury
authors.affiliation: CIRAD, UMR CMAEE, F-34398, Montpellier, France. olivier.kwiatek@cirad.fr.|INRA, UMR 1309 CMAEE, F-34398, Montpellier, France. olivier.kwiatek@cirad.fr.
authors.forename: Olivier
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Kwiatek
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, Bangladesh Agricultural University (BAU), 2202, Mymensingh, Bangladesh. mithundvm@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Rokshana
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Parvin
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, Bangladesh Agricultural University (BAU), 2202, Mymensingh, Bangladesh. mushfique5993@yahoo.com.
authors.forename: Mushfiqur M
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Rahman
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, Bangladesh Agricultural University (BAU), 2202, Mymensingh, Bangladesh. mrislam_bau@yahoo.com.
authors.forename: Mohammad R
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Islam
authors.affiliation: INRA, UMR 1309 CMAEE, F-34398, Montpellier, France. emmanuel.albina@cirad.fr.|CIRAD, UMR CMAEE, F-97170, Petit-Bourg, Guadeloupe, France. emmanuel.albina@cirad.fr.
authors.forename: Emmanuel
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Albina
authors.affiliation: CIRAD, UMR CMAEE, F-34398, Montpellier, France. genevieve.libeau@cirad.fr.|INRA, UMR 1309 CMAEE, F-34398, Montpellier, France. genevieve.libeau@cirad.fr.
authors.forename: Geneviève
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Libeau
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D059788:Dried Blood Spot Testing / Q000379:methods / Q000662:veterinary*; D060005:Genotyping Techniques / Q000662:veterinary*; D015511:Goat Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000235:genetics / Q000821:virology; D006041:Goats / Q000821:virology; D029021:Peste-des-Petits-Ruminants / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000235:genetics / Q000821:virology; D018107:Peste-des-petits-ruminants virus / Q000235:genetics*; D060888:Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction / Q000662:veterinary; D019562:Viral Load / Q000662:veterinary*