Diagnosis of mouse hepatitis virus contamination in mouse population by using nude mice and RT-PCR

RT-PCR Assay for Detection of Enterotropic Strains of Mouse Hepatitis Virus in Faecal Samples

“…The Prevalence of MHV in natural outbreak by RT-PCR in faecal samples is 44% which is comparable with the findings of Yamada et al (1999), who found that 54% of immunocompromised mice were positive in a natural outbreak. Comparison of Prevalence by RT-PCR in faecal and colon samples was comparable with the findings Wang et al (1999). However, there was no study conducted to compare the results of serology with that of RT-PCR in faecal samples and colon samples in natural outbreaks.…”

“…MHV was detected in 44% of faecal samples and 53% of caecal samples which is far less than in serology. Thus low positive rate in PCR compared to ELISA may be due to rapid clearing of the virus by MHV antibodies produced in mouse (Wang et al 1999) and animals that showed positive are all probably in the early and active phase of infection unlike serology which is retrospective in nature and increases in seroprevalence may also be due to polytropic strains (Pullium et al 2003).…”

Reverse transcription-loop-mediated isothermal amplification for the detection of rodent coronaviruses

“…Early detection of carrier mice is therefore very important for eliminating this highly contagious infection from mouse colonies. For this purpose, methods of directly detecting viral RNA using reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) have been developed (Besselsen et al, 2002;Casebolt et al, 1997;Homberger et al, 1991;Matthaei et al, 1998;Smith et al, 2002;Wang et al, 1999;Yamada et al, 1998). However, RT-PCR is a time-consuming and labor-intensive detection method and is highly prone to cross contamination between samples.…”

Tissue distribution and duration of mouse hepatitis virus in naturally infected immunocompetent ICR (CD-1) and immunodeficient athymic nude-nu mouse strains used for ovarian transplantation and in vitro fertilization

“…As with other rodent viruses, surveillance for MHV infection is generally carried out using serological methods such as an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). However, molecular detection of the virus with RT-PCR is rapid, more sensitive and allows the detection of the early phases of the infection (Homberger et al 1991, Kunita et al 1992, Yamada et al 1993, Casebolt et al 1997, Wang et al 1999. A further enhanced sensitivity of this method is achieved by the use of nested primers (Matthaei et al 1998, Yamada et al 1998.…”