background and purpose: fungal keratitis is a suppurative, ulcerative, and sight-threatening infection of the cornea that sometimes leads to blindness. the aims of this study were: recuperating facilities for laboratory diagnosis, determining the causative microorganisms, and comparing conventional laboratory diagnostic tools and semi-nested pcr. materials and methods: sampling was conducted in...

outbreaks causing mass mortalities have been observed in the golden grey mullet (liza auratus) population in southern coastal area of the caspian sea since 2002. the clinical signs include neurological abnormalities, such as erratic swimming behavior, spiral swimming, belly-up at rest and over inflation of the swim bladder. three hundred and twelve samples of moribund fish with sizes that range...

A simple and portable assay for detection of Streptococcus equi subspecies equi has been developed based on amplification of S. equi-specific sequence using a thermophilic helicase-dependent reaction followed by visual detection of the amplicon in a disposable lateral flow cassette. An experimental kit (IsoAmp™ SE) was evaluated. Analytical sensitivity was 50 copies of S. equi genomic DNA per r...

For detecting Borna disease virus (BDV) genomic stranded RNA, single-tube reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (St RT-PCR) was developed to equal the sensitivity of RT-nested PCR but with reduced risk of contamination. BDV-genomic stranded RNA was synthesized in vitro using plasmid cDNA of BDV p24 region as a template and RNA was also extracted from BDV-persistently infected MDCK (MD...

A nested reverse transcriptase (RT) PCR assay detected mRNA of the salmonid pathogen Renibacterium salmoninarum in samples of RNA extracts of between 1 and 10 cells. Total RNA was extracted from cultured bacteria, Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar L.) kidney tissue and ovarian fluid seeded with the pathogen, and kidney tissue from both experimentally challenged and commercially raised fish. Followin...

adenoviruses are recognized as common human pathogens that are responsible for a wide variety of infectious syndromes. bone marrow transplant patients are prone to life threatening opportunistic infections like adenoviruses. the nested polymerase chain reaction has provided an alternative, sensitive diagnostic method for detection of adenoviruses. in this study we developed pcr from hexon genes...

A rapid identification of dengue viruses from clinical samples by using a nested reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) procedure was carried out for diagnostic and epidemiological purposes. RT-PCR identified DEN-1 and DEN-2 viruses in 41% (41/100) of previously confirmed cases and provided an accurate confirmation of DHF in four fatal cases. RT-PCR was also useful for detecti...

background: hepatitis c is a disease with significant global impact. the distribution of hepatitis c virus (hcv) genotypes in mashhad (the northeast and the biggest city after the capital of iran) is unknown. the purpose of this study was to determine the prevalence of hcv genotypes among hcv seropositive patients, and to study the relationship between types, virologic and demographic features ...