Detection and differentiation of wild type and vaccine strains of canine distemper virus by a duplex reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction

Canine distemper virus (CDV) is the cause of canine distemper (CD) which is a severe and highly contagious disease in dogs. In the present study, a duplex reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT PCR) method was developed for the detection and differentiation of wild type and vaccine strains of CDV. Four primers were designed to detect and discriminate the two viruses by generating 638 and 781 bp cDNA products, respectively. Furthermore, the duplex RT PCR method was used to detect 67 field sles suspected of CD from Guangdong province in China. Results showed that, 33 sles were to be wild type like. The duplex RT PCR method exhibited high specificity and sensitivity which could be used to effectively detect and differentiate wild type and vaccine CDV, indicating its use for clinical detection and epidemiological surveillance.