Comparative Evaluation of Immunochromatographic and Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction based tests for Diagnosis of Canine Distemper

Fifty faecal samples were collected from dogs of one year or less age suffering from gastroenteritis. Physical and clinical examination of affected dogs was performed and their blood and serum samples were collected for laboratory investigations. Serum samples from affected dogs were simultaneously mixed in equal proportion of diluent provided with the immunochromatographic (IC) kits. Published and designed primers targeting the N and H gene respectively of CD virus were used for amplification of extracted viral RNA by RT-PCR. Fifty faecal and serum samples were screened using RT-PCR and Immunochromatographic kits respectively. Only one out of fifty faecal samples were found positive for the presence of CDV by conventional RT-PCR and thirteen out of fifty serum samples were found positive with IC kits. The study shows that the percent detection of CDV using IC kits was higher (26 percent) as compared to RT-PCR (2 percent) based test. The study indicated that for timely detection of CDV in clinically affected dogs and timely initiation of treatment and control strategies, immunochromatographic test kits can be successfully used with serum samples.