Use of nucleic acids amplification methods in Marek's disease diagnosis and pathogenesis studies

Marek's disease (MD) is a lymphoproliferative disease of chickens with strong economic impact on poultry industry. Although successful vaccination has enabled control of the disease, outbreaks occur in commercial flocks, resulting in substantial economic losses. Together with vaccination, accurate and fast diagnosis of MD remain the most important tools for its efficient control. MD diagnosis currently relies mainly on the identification of its causative agent, Marek's disease virus type 1 (MDV-1). Nucleic acid amplification techniques have been successfully applied for identification of MDV DNA in field samples and also for studies of virus-host interactions. In this review we want to summarize recent advances in the development of standard and quantitative PCR techniques and their use in rapid MD diagnosis, including differentiation of pathogenic and vaccine MD viruses. PCR protocols have served as a useful tool for clarification of processes associated with MDV infection in chickens, such as virus spread and release, and effect of vaccine virus on progress of MD. Here, we also describe a novel multi-species qPCR methodology for identification and quantification of MDV DNA, enabling its detection in various bird species that are the most susceptible to MDV infection.