Development of a fluorescent probe‐based real‐time reverse transcription recombinase‐aided amplification assay for the rapid detection of classical swine fever virus

Classical swine fever (CSF), which is caused by the CSF virus (CSFV), remains one of the most economically important diseases of the global swine industry. Rapid and reliable detection of CSFV is critical for controlling CSF. In this study, a novel fluorescent probe-based real-time reverse transcription recombinase-aided amplification (rRT-RAA) assay, targeting a highly conserved position within the 5′ non-translated region (5′NTR) among all CSFV genotypes, was developed for the detection of CSFV. The assay is highly specific to CSFV and does not cross react with other important viruses. Sensitivity analysis revealed that the assay could detect two 50% tissue culture infectious dose (TCID50) of CSFV RNA per reaction at 95% probability, which is comparable to that of a documentary reverse transcription quantitative PCR (RT-qPCR) assay for CSFV. The rRT-RAA assay exhibited good reproducibility, with intra- and inter-assay coefficient of variation values of <8.0%. Of the 135 samples (including 102 clinical tissue samples and 33 different cell culture isolates of CSFV), 50 and 52 samples were tested positive for CSFV by rRT-RAA and RT-qPCR, respectively. The coincidence rate between the two assays was 98.5% (133/135). Further linear regression analysis showed a significant correlation between the rRT-RAA and RT-qPCR assays with an R2 value of 0.8682. Interestingly, the amplification products of the rRT-RAA assay could be directly observed with naked eyes under a portable blue light imager, making it possible for an on-site testing. Our results indicate that the rRT-RAA assay is a robust diagnostic tool for the rapid detection of CSFV.