Isolation and Identification of Bluetongue Virus from Goat

A total of 18 goat blood samples were processed for Bluetongue virus isolation in embryonated chicken eggs (ECE) and nine samples showed pathogenic changes on chicken embryo. All the nine ECE isolates adapted well to Baby Hamster Kidney 21 (BHK-21) cell culture and produced visible characteristic cytopathic effect (CPE) from third passage and onwards. Out of nine isolates showing CPE in BHK-21 cell line, three isolates produced 274 bp amplicons in NS1 gene specific Reverse Transcriptase-Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) while in nested PCR, five isolates yielded a DNA band of 101 bp size. The NS1 gene based PCR confirmed the samples as BTV.