Development and evaluation of a reverse transcription loop-mediated isothermal amplification assay for rapid typing of serotype “o” foot-and-mouth disease virus in endemic settings of Tanzania

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Date

2021

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Sokoine University of Agriculture

Abstract

The foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) is an economically important transboundary animal disease (TADs) affecting all cloven-hoofed animals. It is caused by foot-and- mouth disease virus (FMDV), which has seven antigenically distinct serotypes. FMD is endemic in Tanzania, with outbreaks caused by predominantly five serotypes. In order to improve the control of this disease, for instance using serotype-specific vaccines, rapid detection and identification of circulating FMDV strains is of paramount importance. This study describes the development and evaluation of a reverse transcription loop- mediated isothermal amplification (RT-LAMP) assay for diagnosis of serotype ‘O’ FMDV in endemic settings in Tanzania. A retrospective study design was employed for this research whereby a total of forty-four (n=44) archived epithelial tissue samples were analyzed by RNA extraction, reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), RT-LAMP and DNA sequencing. Primers for RT-LAMP targeting serotype ‘O’ FMDV isolates in Tanzania were developed and found to optimally amplify the targeted gene at 65.0 ̊C for 45 minutes in the presence of both Avian Myeloblastosis Virus (AMV) reverse transcriptase enzyme and loop primers. The results indicated that RT-LAMP assay could amplify the viral protein 1 (VP1) gene of serotype ‘O’ FMDV within a range of 13 to 26 minutes, with annealing temperatures of between 70.0 and 89.0°C. The findings indicate that RT-LAMP assay is highly specific as no cross- reactivity occurred between serotype ‘O’ primers with any of the other serotypes. The sensitivity as indicated by the detection limit of the assay was deduced to be 3.78 ×10 -2 ng/μl. This study concludes that RT-LAMP assay could be used to rapidly and accurately detect VP1 gene of serotype ‘O’ FMDV from Tanzania. It is advisable that further studiesare required to evaluate the comparative sensitivity of the assay and check whether the assay is field deployable. Further evaluation is also needed to determine whether the assay would be useful for detecting serotype ‘O’ FMDV strains circulating in other regions in Tanzania.

Description

Dissertation

Keywords

Transcription loop-mediated, Serotype, Foot-and-mouth disease, Tanzania

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