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Detecting the presence of infectious hepatitis A virus in molluscs positive to RT‐nested‐PCR
Author(s) -
De Medici D.,
Croci L.,
Di Pasquale S.,
Fiore A.,
Toti L.
Publication year - 2001
Publication title -
letters in applied microbiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.698
H-Index - 110
eISSN - 1472-765X
pISSN - 0266-8254
DOI - 10.1046/j.1472-765x.2001.01018.x
Subject(s) - virology , nested polymerase chain reaction , hepatitis a virus , biology , virus , rna , hepatitis c virus , real time polymerase chain reaction , polymerase chain reaction , microbiology and biotechnology , gene , genetics
Aims: The objective of this study was to determine the presence of infectious hepatitis A virus (HAV) in molluscs naturally contaminated with viral HAV‐RNA. Methods and Results: One hundred and forty‐two mollusc samples were analysed for the presence of viral HAV‐RNA using RT‐nested‐PCR; positive samples were then analysed with an integrated method, cell‐culture RT‐PCR, to detect infectious virus. Viral HAV‐RNA was detected in 34·5% of the samples while 12·7% of the total samples were positive for the presence of infectious virus. Conclusions: The results demonstrate the validity of the screening method (RT‐nested‐PCR) and the necessity of applying a method that is capable of detecting the presence of infectious HAV. Significance and Impact of the Study: The study demonstrates that in any case, to determine the safety for human consumption, the results of RT‐nested‐PCR must be confirmed with an integrated cell‐culture PCR method.