Detection of bovine coronavirus by RT-PCR in a field study

In the present study we used RT-PCR assay for detecting of BCoV, targeting a 730 bp fragment of the nucleocapsid (N) gene of BCoV with published primers that could amplify all BCoV strains. We evaluated presence of BCoV in diarrheic and nondiarrheic samples. 108 faecal samples from diarrheic calves and 80 faecal samples from nondiarrheic calves collected. In 13 of 108 diarrheic samples both ELISA and RT-PCR detected BCoV. In 4 of 80 samples second group (non diarrheic) BCoV was detected by RT-PCR only not capture ELISA. This report is the first detection of BCoV in Iran. The results suggest that RT-PCR is more sensitive than ELISA method to detect BCoV, especially in subclinical cases. Because these animals shed a low amount of virus in faeces we need to apply sensitive techniques, such as RT-PCR, nested PCR and real time RT-PCR.