Rapid Detection Co-infections of Classical Swine Fever Virus and Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome Virus by One-step Multiplex RT-PCR

Classical swine fever virus (CSFV) and porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (PRRSV) have caused immense economic loss in the pig industry and are considered to be the two most important infectious diseases of pigs in the world. A multiplex reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (multiplex RT-PCR) was developed for CSFV and PRRSV co-infections or infections, respectively. A set of two pairs of primer was designed based on the sequence of nonstructural protein NS54B of CSFV and ORF7 gene of PRRSV. The diagnostic accuracy of multiplex RT-PCR assay was evaluated by using 56 field clinical samples by multiplex RT-PCR, single RT-PCR and sequence analysis; and the specificity of multiplex PCR was verified by using constructed plasmids containing the specific viral target fragments of PRRSV and CSFV, respectively. The results indicated that this assay could reliably differentiate PRRSV and CSFV in co-infection samples. The multiplex RT-PCR developed in this study might provide a new avenue to the rapid the detection of CSFV and PRRSV in one reaction.