Digital PCR Platform as a Tool to Determine the Canine Coronavirus (CCoV) Genome in Clinical Samples

Abstract

Canine coronavirus (CCoV) is an important pathogen that affect dogs. Here we assessed a digital real-time based PCR (dPCR) for the detection of CCoV from infected AF-72 cells and directly from faeces from 100 symptomatic dogs. The results obtained from dPCR were compared to real-time TaqMan® based PCR assay (qPCR) and positive samples were submitted to phylogenetic analysis. Thus, dPCR had an equal sensitivity, 101 copies/μl of partial M CCoV gene, when compared to qPCR results with a good agreement in all analysis. These results indicated that the dPCR could be an alternative technique for the diagnosis of CCoV from clinical samples with advantage of simplicity and sensitivity.