Production of digoxigenin-labelled DNA probe for detection of Muscovy duck parvovirus.

A chemiluminescent dot-blot hybridization assay was developed for the detection of Muscovy duck parvovirus (DPV) by using a non-radioactive DPV DNA probe. A 1030bp HindIII-Bg/II fragment of DPV DNA was labelled with digoxigenin-labelled dUTP. The hybridized DPV DNA probes were detected by an immunoenzymatic reaction using anti-digoxigenin-antibody Fab fragments conjugated to alkaline phosphatase and visualized by chemiluminescent reaction. The assay proved to be sensitive since up to 3 fg of homologous DPV DNA and 10(0.4) EID50 mul-1 of DPV infected amino-allantoic fluid could be visualized. It appeared to be specific for the detection of different strains of DPV and Derszy's disease virus (DDV). Nevertheless, the dot-blot assay showed a lower sensitivity to detect DDV infected samples. No hybridization was noticed between DPV DNA probe and the two mammalian parvovirus strains tested (canine and porcine parvoviruses), emphasizing nucleotidic sequence heterologies. The use of the probe for DPV diagnosis purpose is discussed. To our knowledge, this work constitutes the first description of a dot-blot hybridization assay for the detection of an avian parvovirus.