Development and evaluation of a SYBR Green real-time RT-PCR assay for detection of avian hepatitis E virus.

Background Avian hepatitis E virus (HEV) is the main causative agent of big liver and spleen disease, as well as hepatitis-splenomegaly syndrome in chickens. To date, conventional reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and nested RT-PCR methods have been used for the diagnosis of avian HEV infection in chickens. However, these assays are time consuming, inconvenient, and cannot detect the virus quantitatively. In this study, a rapid and sensitive SYBR Green real-time RT-PCR assay was developed to detect avian HEV RNA quantitatively in serum, liver, spleen, and fecal samples from chickens.