Efficiency of various cloned DNA probes for detection of bovine viral diarrhea viruses.

We have evaluated 24 cytopathic (CP) and 37 noncytopathic (NCP) strains of bovine viral diarrhea virus (BVDV) with a dot blot assay using four different genome segments of the NADL strain as hybridization probes (p80, p54, gp53, and gp62). The p80 and p54 probes hybridized to 23/24 (96%) and 22/24 (92%), respectively, of CP strains examined. In contrast, these same two probes only detected 16/37 (43%) and 5/37 (13%), respectively, of the NCP strains examined. The gp53 probe detected 18/24 (75%) and the gp62 probe detected 19/24 (79%) of the CP strains. In contrast, these latter two probes only detected 9/37 (24%) and 7/37 (20%), respectively, of NCP strains. This low detection rate of NCP strains suggests a need for developing a probe based on NCP sequences for identification of NCP strains.