Recent achievements and trends in the molecular diagnosis of bovine viral diseases--a view from the "OIE Collaborating Centre for the Application of Polymerase Chain Reaction Methods for the Diagnosis of Viral Diseases in Veterinary Medicine".

The activities of the "OIE Collaborating Centre for the Application of Polymerase Chain Reaction Methods for the Diagnosis of Viral Diseases" and its partner laboratories are summarised, providing a view of recent achievements and trends in the field the molecular diagnosis of bovine viral diseases. Results are briefly discussed concerning the diagnostic application of various techniques and approaches, such as PCR, semi-nested and nested PCR assays, phylogeny and molecular epidemiology, real-time PCR assays, "general" PCR systems, multiplex PCR, multi PCR, robotics in nucleic acid extraction, automated diagnosis, international standardisation and validation of the PCR-based diagnostic assays, and several future trends in molecular diagnostics. These achievements and trends lead to more rapid and specific detection of various viral infections in the cattle populations. Their application will certainly contribute to the reduction of losses which are caused by bovine viral diseases worldwide.