Rapid Selective Detection of Potentially Infectious Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea Coronavirus Exposed to Heat Treatments Using Viability RT-qPCR

Coronaviruses (CoVs) cause severe respiratory, enteric, and systemic infections in a wide range of hosts, including humans and animals. Porcine epidemic diarrhea virus (PEDV), a member of the Coronaviridae family, is the etiological agent of porcine epidemic diarrhea (PED), a highly contagious intestinal disease affecting pigs of all ages. In this study, we optimized a viability real-time reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) for the selective detection of infectious and heat-inactivated PEDV. PEMAX™, EMA™, and PMAxx™ photoactivable dyes along with PtCl4 and CDDP platinum compounds were screened as viability markers using two RT-qPCR assays: firstly, on PEDV purified RNA…