Description
Noroviruses are the most common cause of acute non-bacterial gastroenteritis in the industrialized world. The illness is highly contagious and can occur directly by person-to-person transmission or indirectly from contact with contaminated fomites, or consumption of contaminated food or water. The standardized ISO/TS 15216 method describes the recommendations for the detection of norovirus genogroups I (GI) and II (GII). The method uses the real-time RT-PCR technique to detect specific regions in the well-conserved 5′ end of the ORF1-ORF2 junction. The method is applicable to test samples of foodstuffs (soft fruit, leaf, stem and bulb vegetables, bottled water, bivalve molluscan shellfish) or surfaces. Amplification detection is based on Taqman technology, i.e., the fluorescence issued is detected upon degradation of the hydrolysis probe during PCR reaction. This kit includes Infectious Bronchitis Virus (IBV) as a process control virus and its respective primer and probe sets. The detection of amplified DNA fragments is achieved using different fluorescence channels (FAM, HEX and Cy5) available in real-time thermocyclers.