A Multiplex Polymerase Chain Reaction for Differential Detection of Turkey Coronavirus from Chicken Infectious Bronchitis Virus and Bovine Coronavirus

Loa, Chien Chang; Wu, Ching Ching; Lin, Tsang Long

A multiplex polymerase chain reaction (PCR) method for differential detection of turkey coronavirus (TCoV), infectious bronchitis virus (IBV), and bovine coronavirus (BCoV) is presented in this chapter. Primers are designed from the conserved or variable regions of nucleocapsid (N) or spike (S) protein genes of TCoV, IBV, and BCoV and used in the same PCR reaction. Reverse transcription followed by PCR reaction is used to amplify a portion of N or S gene of the corresponding coronaviruses. Two PCR products, a 356-bp band corresponding to N gene and a 727-bp band corresponding to S gene, are obtained for TCoV. In contrast, one PCR product of 356 bp corresponding to a fragment of N gene is obtained for IBV strains and one PCR product of 568 bp corresponding to a fragment of S gene is obtained for BCoV.