Development and Evaluation of a Novel Taqman Real-Time PCR Assay for Rapid Detection of : Comparison of Assay Performance with a Conventional PCR Assay and Another Taqman Real-Time PCR Assay.

The objective of this study was to develop and validate a Taqman real-time PCR assay for the detection of (). Unique primers targeting the highly conserved house-keeping gene () were designed and the probe sequence was derived from a previously published microarray study. There was 100% agreement in the outcome between our assay and the other two published assays for detection.

Prevalence of leptospiral infection in Texas cattle: implications for transmission to humans.

Of 1193 Texas slaughterhouse cattle serum samples assayed for anti-leptospiral antibodies by microscopic agglutination testing, 262 (22%) reacted with serovar pomona and 179 (15%) with serovar hardjo. Of 300 urine samples tested for leptospiral DNA by a polymerase chain reaction assay, 106 (35%) were positive. The high prevalence of leptospiral infection of cattle represents potential threats to human health and agricultural economics.