A real time Taqman RT-PCR for the detection of rabbit hemorrhagic disease virus 2 (RHDV2)

The specificity of the method was demonstrated in vitro with a panel of common rabbit pathogens. Standardization was performed with RNA transcripts obtained from a recombinant plasmid harboring the target sequence. The method was able to detected nine RNA molecules with an efficiency of 99.4% and a R2 value of 1. Repeatability and reproducibility of the method were very high, with coefficients of variation lower than 2.40%. The assay was proven a valuable tool to diagnose most of RDVH2 circulating strains, and may be also useful to monitor viral loads, and consequently, disease progression and vaccination efficacy.