Development of polyclonal-antibody-coated immunomagnetic beads for separation and detection of koi herpesvirus in large-volume samples.

To separate and concentrate koi herpesvirus (KHV) from large-volume samples, a separation method based on immunomagnetic beads (IMBs) coated with polyclonal antibody directed against KHV was developed. After treatment with IMBs, viral DNA was extracted from samples and used as a template for quantitative PCR (qPCR). The results showed that the concentration of the template DNA extracted from the virus that had been separated using IMBs was 9.65-fold higher than that from virus not treated with IMBs. The detection limit of the IMBs/qPCR method was found to be at least 10 times lower than that of qPCR alone.