DETECTING BUNYAVIRUSES OF THE BUNYAMWERA AND CALIFORNIA SEROGROUPS BYA PCR TECHNIQUE

Many bunyaviruses of the Bunyamwera and California serogroups are medi cally important human pathogens, The development of an effective techn ique to detect the viruses by using molecular biologic tools, such as PCR, improves not only clinical diagnosis but also virologic surveilla nce of mosquito vectors in the field, In this study, we evaluated eigh t pairs of primers for reactivity with 44 viruses of the genus Bunyavi rus, using a reverse transcriptase PCR technique, With a pair of serog roup-specific primers we designed, all viruses of the serogroups teste d could be detected, Further, virus-specific primer pairs were identif ied for California encephalitis virus, Jamestown Canyon virus, La Cros se virus, and snowshoe hare virus for use in North America. Using this technique, we could detect one La Crosse virus-infected mosquito in a pool of 100 mosquitoes with undetectable plaque titers.