APPLICATION OF NESTED POLYMERASE-CHAIN-REACTION TO DETECTION OF MOUSEHEPATITIS-VIRUS IN FECAL SPECIMENS DURING A NATURAL OUTBREAK IN AN IMMUNODEFICIENT MOUSE COLONY

The usefulness of RT-PCR for the detection of MHV in tissues and feces of experimentally infected animals has been reported, but if was uncl ear whether the method was also applicable for the detection of MHV du ring a natural outbreak. Enterotropic infection is considered to be th e most common form of natural infection among various forms of MHV inf ection. In this paper, RT-nested PCR was performed to defect MHV excre ted in the feces during an outbreak in an immunocompromised A/WySnJ mo use colony. The expected bands were amplified after nested PCR from 20 fecal samples out of 37. These results showed that RT-nested PCR coul d be applicable for the diagnosis for MHV natural infection.