Abstract
Inhibitors in food samples may be responsible for the difficulty in detecting Norovirus (NV) by PCR. To detect NV more efficiently, we employed additional bacterial treatment process before RNA extraction in the standard protocol. Ten strains of bacteria were examined with the modified method using oyster samples, and Proteus vulgaris was found to be the most effective. By quantification of NV RNAs using real-time PCR, recovery rates of NVs (GI/8 or GII/4) added to oyster suspensions using the modified method were compared with those recovered using the standard method. Recovery rates using the modified method with P. vulgaris were 45.9% for GI/8 and 21.3% for GII/4, while those using the standard method were 0.2% for GI/8 and GII/4.
