Infectious myonecrosis virus (IMNV) is a recently observed shrimp virus, which threats the cultured
Litopenaeus vannamei and can cause huge economic loss in shrimp farming industry. The specific aim
of this study was to develop a new sensitive real-time PCR method for the specific detection of shrimp
IMNV. A real-time PCR assay with a pair of primers to specifically amplify a 101 bp IMNV cDNA fragment
and a corresponding TaqMan probe was developed, which shown to be specific for IMNV without cross
reaction with DNA samples prepared from four other shrimp viruses including white spot syndrome virus
(WSSV), hepatopancreatic parvovirus (HPV), monodon baculovirus (MBV), and infectious hypodermal
and haematopoietic virus (IHHNV). The method could detect as low as one single copy of IMNV plasmid
cDNA.