Rapid detection of Betacoronavirus 1 from clinical fecal specimens by a novel reverse transcription loop-mediated isothermal amplification assay.

Betacoronavirus 1 (BCoV-1) is an important pathogen causing diarrhea in calves. In the current study, a novel reverse transcription loop-mediated isothermal amplification (RT-LAMP) assay for rapid detection of BCoV-1 was successfully developed. The primers were designed to target the highly conserved fragment of BCoV-1 nucleocapsid gene. The assay displayed high specificity detecting only BCoV-1 with no cross reaction with other viruses. When 418 clinical samples from 6 different geographical areas of Xinjiang province were tested by the RT-LAMP method, the results indicated that this test is a simple, rapid, accurate, and sensitive method for the detection of BCoV-1.