Rapid and Reliable Detection of Vesicular Stomatitis Virus

NON-TECHNICAL SUMMARY: Vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV) affects a wide range of agriculturally important animals. The economic impact of an outbreak of VSV can be quite large due to its effect on animals, but more importantly, because at early stages of the disease, it is nearly indistinguishable from foot and mouth disease virus (FMD). Reliable detection of VSV is complicated by the existence of two common strains of the disease, since common methods for the detection of one strain fail when applied to the other. Reliable detection may further be influenced by the stage of virus development, and on the sample matrix chosen. The economic consequences of a vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV) outbreak can be profound, but can be lessened if it can be rapidly and reliably distinguished from the even more dangerous foot and mouth disease virus (FMD). The fact that the proposed assay will accomplish this will provide a strong economic motivation to the agricultural and veterinary communities to use the method. Further factors that will recommend the method to this market include the speed of the assay (likely less than thirty minutes), and its suitability for use in the field for the rapid processing of large numbers of samples by relatively unskilled users.