Quantitative real-time PCR for detection of monkey B virus (Cercopithecine herpesvirus 1) in clinical samples.

A TaqMan based real-time PCR assay was developed for rapid detection and quantitation of herpes B virus (Cercopithecine herpesvirus 1) in clinical samples. The assay utilizes B virus-specific primers and a probe to the non-conserved region of the gG gene to discriminate B virus from closely related alphaherpesviruses. Fifty copies of B virus DNA could be detected with 100% sensitivity with a wide range of quantitation spanning 6 logs.