DEVELOPMENT OF A UPL PROBE-BASED REAL-TIME PCR ASSAY OF PORCINE DELTACORONAVIRUS IN TAIWAN

Porcine deltacoronavirus (PDCoV) causes clinical symptoms characterized by severe diarrhea and vomiting in neonatal piglets and pregnant sows, which is similar to those resulted from transmissible gastroenteritis coronavirus (TGEV) and porcine epidemic diarrhea virus (PEDV). Since PEDV was considered as the dominant enteric virus all round the world, PDCoV has been unwittingly overlooked due to its indistinguishable clinical signs with other porcine coronaviruses and relatively low death rates in the pig farm. Specimens which have been previously performed for the detection of PEDV in Animal Disease and Diagnostic Center, National Pingtung University of Science and Technology (NPUST) from January 5, 2015 to January 11, 2016 were examined by a novel universal probe library (UPL) probe-based real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR). A total of 527 clinical specimens from pigs with diarrhea suspected were examined for PDCoV. Positive rates of PDCoV in small intestine and rectal swab were 4.3% (13/305) and 1.8% (4/222), respectively. Collectively, as to the total specimens, the detection rate is 3.2% (17/527). Our results provide development of a UPL probe-based real-time PCR assay and retrospective investigation of potentially circulating PDCoVs in the field in the whole 2015 and early 2016.