Evaluation of cobas Influenza A/B & RSV Test for Diagnosis of Equine Influenza

Manabu Nemoto; Noriyuki Okita; Masayoshi Kitahata; Hiroshi Bannai; Koji Tsujimura; Yuta Kinoshita; Yoshinori Kambayashi; Ann Cullinane; Takashi Yamanaka; Minoru Ohta

doi:10.1016/j.jevs.2020.103249

Evaluation of cobas Influenza A/B & RSV Test for Diagnosis of Equine Influenza

J Equine Vet Sci. 2020 Nov:94:103249. doi: 10.1016/j.jevs.2020.103249. Epub 2020 Sep 12.

Affiliations

¹ Equine Research Institute, Japan Racing Association, Shimotsuke, Tochigi, Japan. Electronic address: nemoto_manabu@equinst.go.jp.
² Molecular Diagnostics, Roche Diagnostics K.K., Tokyo, Japan.
³ Equine Research Institute, Japan Racing Association, Shimotsuke, Tochigi, Japan.
⁴ Virology Unit, Irish Equine Centre, Kildare, Ireland.

PMID: 33077083
DOI: 10.1016/j.jevs.2020.103249

Abstract

A rapid and sensitive diagnostic method is needed to help prevent the spread of equine influenza virus. The cobas Influenza A/B & RSV test for the cobas Liat system (Roche Diagnostics) is based on real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction and is designed to broadly detect influenza A virus RNA within 20 minutes. It detected a broad range of equine influenza virus strains, and detected equine influenza virus RNA from nasal swabs of infected horses at the same level as real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction, although it returned some invalid results (7.7%). This suggests that cobas Influenza A/B & RSV test is highly sensitive to equine influenza virus, but should be improved to reduce the rate of invalid results.

Keywords: Diagnosis; Equine influenza virus; Real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction; cobas liat system.

MeSH terms

Animals
Horse Diseases* / diagnosis
Horses
Influenza A virus* / genetics
Influenza B virus / genetics
Influenza, Human*
Molecular Diagnostic Techniques / veterinary
Sensitivity and Specificity