RT-PCR evaluation of foot and mouth disease serotype O in saliva, tracheal and vesicular samples of goats in Punjab, Pakistan

The aim of present study was to evaluate the RT-PCR technique in the original field samples from goat for the diagnosis of foot and mouth disease (FMD) within 24 hours. A total of 280 samples were collected from thirty herds of goats in twelve different outbreaks clinically suspected for FMD near outbreak epicenters of other livestock and evaluated by RT-PCR with 171 positive results. Universal primer pair P1/P2 detected 30% and 1F/1R detected 61% from total collected samples. AU(O)/AU(rev) and AU(O)/PNK61 primer pairs confirmed O serotype of FMD in 90.6% and 74.4% respectively out of 43 representative samples, whilst O-1C(ARS4)/PNK61 O primer pairs detected only 18.6% samples. The VP1gene sequence analysis revealed O serotype of FMD PanAsial lineage. The maximum samples can be detected by 1F/1R, AU(O)/AU(rev) and AU(O)/PNK61 primer pairs; whilst P1/P2, AU(O)/AU(rev) and ARS4/NK61 can be a better combination for the sequence analysis from original field materials of goats.