Simultaneous detection of North American and European porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus using real-time quantitative reverse transcriptase-PCR.

Porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS) is 1 of the most economically important diseases of swine. Detection of the etiologic agent, PRRS virus (PRRSV), represents a diagnostic challenge due to the heterogeneity of field isolates as well as the propensity for swine to develop persistent infection in which virus is difficult to detect. Recently European (EU) lineage PRRSV isolates, which are genetically divergent from North American (NA) isolates, have been introduced into NA swine further complicating efforts to diagnose this disease. In this study, real-time (TaqMan) reverse transcriptase (RT)–PCR assays were developed for multiplex detection, differentiation, and quantification of NA and EU PRRSV field isolates. Oligonucleotide primers and dual-labeled probes were selected from conserved regions of open-reading frame 7 and the 3'-untranslated region. The real-time RT-PCR assays described for the NA or EU genotype of PRRSV detected viral RNA from 83/83 strains (74 NA; 9 EU) previously isolat...