Trends in bluetongue virus diagnostics: A review

Abstract

Bluetongue (BLU) virus is widely prevalent in the world inflicting colossal economic losses due to mortality, morbidty, production losses and international trade barrier on animals and their germplasm from BLU endemic countries to BLU free reguibs. Twenty-four serotypes of bluetongue virus (BLUV) are known world over. Due to ds segmented RNA genome of the virus, it is prone to frequent mutations leading to emergence of new genetic variants in the natural mammlian host and vector cycle. Therefore, it is necessary to develop tools suitable for group specific diagnosis as well as dectection of genetic and antigenic diversity in the BLUV circulating in nature. In the last over 2 decades, a wide array of molecular and traditional approaches have been developed for diverse situations to detect the presence of BLUV infection either by detecting the antibodies and antigens or the viral nucleic acids in the blological samples. A number of varations of enzyme immunoassays have been developed for diverse situations to detect the presence BLUV infection either by detecting the antibodies and antigens or the viral nucleic acids in the biological smples. A number of variations of enzyme immunoassays have been developed in several laboratories for detection of BLUV. This review is aimed at providing critical appraisal of the classical and biotechnological methods currently for diagonsts of BLUV.