ESTABLISHMENT OF A MOLECULAR PCR METHOD FOR THE DETECTION OF MURINE HEPATITIS VIRUS IN ICR MOUSE MODELS

Abstract

Mouse hepatitis virus (MHV) is one of the major viral pathogens requiring surveillance in laboratory mice. Various methods are currently available for MHV detection; among these, reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) is well suited to the needs and technical capacity of the Laboratory Animal Department. Using a cross-sectional descriptive design, we compared two primer pairs under different annealing temperatures and MHV concentrations and selected the optimal pair to assess specificity. The results showed that the RT-PCR protocol, employing primers targeting the membrane protein gene, successfully detected MHV at an optimal concentration of 2.8 × 10² TCID₅₀/mL, with an annealing temperature of 60°C.