Field-deployable real-time polymerase chain reaction detection of bluetongue and epizootic haemorrhagic disease viral ribonucleic acid.

Nucleic acid sequence information from molecular evolution studies of bluetongue virus (BTV) and related epizootic haemorrhagic disease virus (EHDV) strains has resulted in a large database of genomic information. Published sequence data and sequence data from our laboratory were used to design real-time field-deployable reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction assays for the detection of BTV or EHDV viral RNA. The assays used standard RNA extraction and TaqMan chemistries and the entire process was completed in