HIGH-SENSITIVITY POLYMERASE CHAIN-REACTION ASSAY FOR ACTIVE AND LATENT FELINE HERPESVIRUS-1 INFECTIONS IN DOMESTIC CATS

A polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assay was developed and used to dete ct feline herpesvirus-1 (FHV-1) in conjunctival and oropharyngeal swab s, and in latently infected tissues (trigeminal ganglia, optic nerves, optic chiasma, olfactory bulbs and corneas) collected from 10 experim entally infected cats. There was good agreement between parallel tests of the swab specimens by PCR and virus isolation assay during the pha se of acute, latent and recurrent disease episodes (kappa = 0.63, P < 0.001). The PCR reliably detected less than or equal to 240 copies of FHV-1 template DNA, significantly improving upon previously published PCR assays for the agent.