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Chinese Agricultural Science Bulletin ›› 2025, Vol. 41 ›› Issue (30): 156-164.doi: 10.11924/j.issn.1000-6850.casb2025-0088

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Establishment and Optimization of Droplet Digital PCR Method for African Swine Fever Virus

WANG Yonghao1,2(), LIU Pengxiang3, SONG Shuai1, CHEN Yuting1, WEN Xiaohui1, XIANG Guoqing1, CHEN Meixia1, LI Wenchao2, LUO Shengjun1()   

  1. 1 Institute of Animal Health, Guangdong Academy of Agricultural Sciences/ Guangdong Province Key Laboratory of Livestock Disease Prevention/ Guangdong Provincial Scientific Observation and Experiment Station of Veterinary Drugs and Diagnostic Technology, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Guangzhou 510640
    2 Anhui Provincial Key Laboratory of Animal Nutrition Regulation and Health, College of Animal Science, Anhui Science and Technology University, Fengyang, Anhui 233100
    3 College of Animal Science and Technology, Foshan University, Foshan, Guangdong 528231
  • Received:2025-02-12 Revised:2025-07-28 Online:2025-10-25 Published:2025-11-04

Abstract:

The objective of this study is to establish a droplet digital PCR (ddPCR) method for the detection of African swine fever virus. In this study, the specific primers and probes of African swine fever virus were synthesized, and the annealing temperature, primer and probe concentration and reaction conditions were optimized. The specificity, sensitivity and repeatability of the method were comprehensively evaluated, and the preliminary clinical application was carried out according to the optimized conditions. The optimal annealing temperature of the established ddPCR method was 61.4℃. The optimal final primer and probe concentrations were 700 nmol/L and 150 nmol/L, respectively; the results of this method showed that the specific amplification of ASFV was positive, and the amplification of other common epidemic viruses was negative without amplification, and there was no cross-reactivity. The lowest limit of detection of this ddPCR method was 1.37 copies/μL, which was 10-fold more sensitive than that of real-time PCR, the fit of the concentration gradient linear analysis was R2=0.9898, and the coefficient of variation of the repeatability test was less than 10%. The ddPCR method established by the application was used to detect 80 suspected ASFV clinical samples from different sources, and the results were negative, which was consistent with the results of real-time polymerase chain reaction (qPCR). The ddPCR method established in this study has high sensitivity, strong specificity and good reproducibility, and can be used for accurate quantitative analysis of ASFV laboratory detection.

Key words: droplet digital PCR (ddPCR), African swine fever, quantitative detection, number of copies