Quantification of ovine herpesvirus 2 by digital PCR in an outbreak of malignant catarrhal fever.
Tatiana Flávia Pinheiro de OliveiraMateus Laguardia-NascimentoFabiana Galtarossa XavierCarla do Amaral PintoLuciana Rabello FerreiraIvy de Castro Campos de SouzaMárcia Elisa HammerschmittRonaldo Michel BianchiJúlia Gabriela WronskiRodrigo Nestor EtgesGrazziane Maciel RigonMarcelo Fernandes CamargosAnselmo Vasconcelos Rivetti JúniorAntônio Augusto Fonseca JúniorPublished in: Archives of virology (2019)
Infection with ovine gammaherpesvirus 2 (OvHV-2) is generally asymptomatic in sheep; however, when it crosses the species barrier, it causes malignant catarrhal fever (MCF) in cattle. In the present study, we developed a real-time PCR assay and a droplet digital PCR assay and use both methods to study an outbreak caused by OvHV-2. Both PCR methods showed high sensitivity and specificity and were able to detect low copy numbers of OvHV-2 in sheep and cattle. The present study describes the first digital PCR quantification of OvHV-2 genome copies in samples collected from sheep and cattle.