Development of RT-PCR for detection of peste des petits ruminants virus.

A pair of primers based on N gene sequences of different strains of peste des petits ruminants virus(PPRV) and another pair of primers from ovine β-actin gene as control were designed for amplification of 687 bp and 493 bp-fragments respectively.Using PPRV Nigeria 75/1 strain and goat tissue RNA mixture as template,the two bands with expected size were amplified by RT-PCR and sequencing confirmed that the target gene was amplified.A RT-PCR assay was developed and the detection limit reached 12 TCID50/mL under the optimized conditions.The N gene could be detected from the blood samples of goat infected with PPRV Nigeria 75/1 strain,indicating that the developed RT-PCR was specific and sensitive.