Appling real time RT-PCR for bluetongue virus detection in Iran

During 2009-10, real time rt-pcr and conventional rt-pcr techniques used for detecting btvs rna in310 blood samples. for real time and gel based rt-pcr segment-1 and segment-10 selected as conservegenes to search any btv strains. using these methods, 58 (%18.7) and 14 (%4.5) positive samples weredetected among the clinically suspected sheep. sensitivity of both molecular techniques evaluated by log-10serial dilutions of btv16 rna, and determined 10^1.8 and 10^3.8 tcid50/ml in rrt-pcr and conventionalrt-pcr respectively. this report confirmed rrt-pcr assay could detect weak btv positive samples evenat end stage of infection. in this study virus isolation from selected positive samples failed by inoculation toembryonated chicken egg, vero and kc cell.