Multiplex PCR for Diagnosis of Porcine Diseases

Abstract

Molecular diagnostics have revolutionized the efficiency of diagnosis of infectious diseases. An accurate diagnosis of a disease would prevent further infestation of infections in the healthy population. Although several laboratory techniques exists such as cell-culture, serological, and molecular based methods that were developed in the past decades for highlighting these diseases, however, because of their robustness, high sensitivity, specificity, rapidness, and suitability of the range of types of samples that can be analyzed, nucleic acid amplification tests are suitable for the diagnosis of pathogenic infections. Since the development of polymerase chain reaction (PCR), this molecular technique has been widely utilized as a nucleic acid amplification tool and besides being utilized as a laboratory tool, it has proved to have an exceptional potential in clinical applications, including detection of specific or broad spectrum pathogens, evaluation of emerging novel infections, disease surveillance, early threat of bio-threat agents, and antimicrobial resistance profiling. The multiplex PCR is the technique where we can simultaneously detect more than one organism in a single reaction. The multiplexing may be done either with conventional PCR or with real time PCR. This technique provides detection of mixed infection including both viruses and bacteria, time saving and cost effective.