Establishment of reverse transcription droplet digital PCR assay for detection of Tilapia Lake Virus

To establish an assay of reverse transcription droplet digital PCR (RT-ddPCR) for Tilapia Lake Virus (TiLV), we designed a pair of specific primers and probe based on the conserved region of TiLV segment 3 and evaluated the specificity, sensitivity and repeatability of this method. The structured standard curve was evaluated by using TiLV-cDNA as a template. Finally, the samples were tested. When the concentrations of primers and probes were 500 and 300 nmol·L⁻¹ and the annealing temperature was 54.2 ℃, the established TiLV RT-ddPCR amplification reaction efficiency was the highest, the distribution boundary of the positive and negative droplets was the most obvious, and the average copy number was higher. The RT-ddPCR of TiLV had a lower limit of detection with 2 copies·μL⁻¹ and showed a good linear relationship between 1–90 000 copies·μL⁻¹ (Correlation coefficient R²=0.995 8). There was no amplification reaction to other viruses in aquatic animals. The CV of ddPCR for TiLV-cDNA was 4.86%. There was no cross reaction with the positive samples of other five common aquatic animal disease viruses [Carp edema virus (CEV), Koi herpesvirus (KHV), Grass carp reovirus (GCV), Cyprinid herpesvirus 2 (CyHV-2), Red sea bream iridovirus (RSIV)]. Among the 53 detected samples, 48 were negative, three of five proficiency testing samples were positive, consistent with satisfactory previous proficiency testing results.