Development of a fluorescent probe-based recombinase polymerase amplification assay for rapid detection of Orf virus

BACKGROUND: Orf virus (ORFV) is the causative agent of Orf (also known as contagious ecthyma or contagious papular dermatitis), a severe infectious skin disease in goats, sheep and other ruminants. The rapid detection of ORFV is of great importance in disease control and highly needed. A isothermal molecular diagnostic approach, termed recombinase polymerase amplification (RPA), is considered as an novel and rapid alternative techonology to PCR assay. RESULTS: In the present study, a novel fluorescent probe based on RPA assay (ORFV exo RPA assay) was developed. The developed ORFV exo RPA assay was capable of as low as 100 copies of ORFV DNA /reaction and was highly specific, with no cross-reaction with closely related viruses (capripox virus, foot-and-mouth disease virus or peste des petits ruminants virus). Further assessment with clinical samples showed that the developed ORFV exo RPA assay has good correlation with qPCR assays for detection of ORFV. CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest that the developed ORFV exo RPA assay is suitable for rapid detection of ORFV. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12985-015-0440-z) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.