An isothermal nucleic acid amplification-based enzymatic recombinase amplification method for dual detection of porcine epidemic diarrhea virus and porcine rotavirus A

Viral diarrhea is the predominant digestive tract sickness in piglings, resulting in substantial profit losses in the porcine industry. Porcine rotavirus A (PoRVA) and porcine epidemic diarrhea virus (PEDV) are the main causes of grave gastroenteritis and massive dysentery, especially in piglets. PoRVA and PEDV have high transmissibility, exhibit similar clinical symptoms, and frequently co-occur. Therefore, to avoid financial losses, a quick, highly efficient, objective diagnostic test for the prevention and treatment of these viruses is required. Enzymatic recombinase amplification (ERA) is a novel technology based on isothermal nucleic acid amplification. It demonstrates high sensitivity and excellent specificity, with a short processing time and easy operability, compared with other in vitro nucleic acid amplification technologies. In this study, a dual ERA method to detect and distinguish between PEDV and PoRVA nucleic acids was established. The method shows high sensitivity, as the detection limits were 101 copies/μL for both viruses. To test the usefulness of this method in clinical settings, we tested 64 swine clinical samples. Our results were 100% matched with those acquired using a commercially available kit. Therefore, we have successfully developed a dual diagnostic ERA nucleic acids method for detecting and distinguishing between PEDV and PoRVA.