A direct real-time polymerase chain reaction assay for rapid high-throughput detection of highly pathogenic North American porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus in China without RNA purification

BACKGROUND: Porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (PRRSV), and particularly its highly pathogenic genotype (HP-PRRSV), have caused massive economic losses to the global swine industry. RESULTS: To rapidly identify HP-PRRSV, we developed a direct real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction method (dRT-PCR) that could detect the virus from serum specimen without the need of RNA purification. Our dRT-PCR assay can be completed in 1.5 h from when a sample is received to obtaining a result. Additionally, the sensitivity of dRT-PCR matched that of conventional reverse transcription PCR (cRT-PCR) that used purified RNA. The lowest detection limit of HP-PRRSV was 6.3 TCID(50) using dRT-PCR. We applied dRT-PCR assay to 144 field samples and the results showed strong consistency with those obtained by cRT-PCR. Moreover, the dRT-PCR method was able to tolerate 5-20% (v/v) serum. CONCLUSIONS: Our dRT-PCR assay allows for easier, faster, more cost-effective and higher throughput detection of HP-PRRSV compared with cRT-PCR methods. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report to describe a real-time RT-PCR assay capable of detecting PRRSV in crude serum samples without the requirement for purifying RNA. We believe our approach has a great potential for application to other RNA viruses. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/2049-1891-5-45) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.