Differential detection of transmissible gastroenteritis virus and porcine epidemic diarrhea virus by duplex RT-PCR

Transmissible gastroenteritis (TGE) and porcine epidemic diarrhea (PED) are highly contagious enteric diseases of piglets. The clinical signs of these diseases are very similar and include watery, yellowish diarrhea. Thus, th e effective differential detection of TGE virus and PED virus is required. In the present study, a duplex reverse transcription-polymerase chain react ion (RT-PCR) was established for the differential detection of TGE and PED viruses. The primers were designed for the S gene of each virus. RNA was ex tracted from the intestines and stool samples that were collected from the swine with diarrhea. The RT-PCR test could detect both TGE and PED viruses with 2 TCID50/200 mul. Among 90 clinical samples, 7 TGE viruses and 2 PED v iruses were detected by the duplex RT-PCR. This duplex RT-PCR may be a usef ul diagnostic method for the rapid, specific, and sensitive differential de tection of TGE and PED viruses using clinical samples.