Recovery of Francisella tularensis from soil samples by filtration and detection by real-time PCR and cELISA.

The aim of this study was to develop a specific and highly sensitive method able to detect very low concentrations of Francisella tularensis in soil samples by real-time PCR (qPCR) with SYBR Green I. tul4 gene, which encodes the 17-kDa protein (TUL4) in F. tularensis strains, was amplified using a LightCycler (LC) device.