Real-Time Reverse Transcription-Polymerase Chain Reaction for Detection and Quantitation of Turkey Coronavirus RNA in Feces and Intestine Tissues

Turkey coronavirus (TCoV) infection causes acute atrophic enteritis in turkey poults, leading to significant economic loss in the turkey industry. Rapid detection, differentiation, and quantitation of TCoV are critical to the diagnosis and control of the disease. A specific one-step real-time reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) assay using TCoV-specific primers and dual-labeled fluorescent probe for detection and quantitation of TCoV in feces and intestine tissues is described in this chapter. The fluorogenic probe labeled with a reporter dye (FAM, 6-carboxytetramethylrhodamine) and a quencher dye (Absolute Quencher™) was designed to bind to a 186 base-pair fragment flanked by the two PCR primers targeting the 3′ end of spike gene (S2) of TCoV. The assay is highly specific and sensitive and can quantitate between 10(2) and 10(10) copies/mL of viral genome. It is useful in monitoring the progression of TCoV-induced atrophic enteritis in the turkey flocks.