Laboratory diagnosis of FMD using real-time RT-PCR in Egypt

Definitive diagnosis of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) requires the detection of virus antigen or genome in clinical material. The aim was performance of real-time RT-PCR (rRT-PCR) procedures for this purpose. Twenty nine cattle samples of vesicular epithelial and nasal swabs from four localities of Ismailia governorates were examined by ELISA, VN, RT-PCR and rRT-PCR. The results showed that 11 samples were positive by ELISA and virus isolation, 8 of serotype O and 3 for type A. Fourteen samples out of 29 were positive by RT-PCR and rRT-PCR. The features that influence sample quality appear to be less important for the rRT-PCR and RT-PCR as they can detect a small fragment of FMDV genomic RNA. Real-time RT-PCR provided an extremely sensitizer and rapid procedures that contributes to improved laboratory diagnosis of FMD. [Laila EL-Shehawy; Abu-Elnaga H.; Abdel Atty M.; Fawzy H.; Al-Watany H. and Azab A. Laboratory diagnosis of FMD using real-time RT-PCR in Egypt] Life Science Journal. 2011;8(3):384-387] (ISSN: 1097-8135).