Bluetongue Virus Testing with JANUS Automated Workstations

Bluetongue is an insect-borne disease of domestic, as well as wild ruminants that induces variable clinical signs depending on the species and the breed. The disease is caused by the bluetongue virus (BTV) which is the type species of the genus Orbiviruses within the family Reoviridae. Since an introduction of BTV is associated with substantial economic losses, the disease has to be strictly monitored by sensitive, reproducible and robust methods. Conventional or real-time RT-PCR (RT-qPCR) analysis has become the method of choice to determine the presence of BTV

The JANUS® Automated Workstation can automate RT-qPCR setup; the preferred method of analyzing samples to detect BTV. The JANUS Automated Workstation is capable of extracting BTV RNA from virtually any sample type using a variety of protocols, and has can perform both magnetic particle and vacuum filtration-based protocols in tube or plate format utilizing The JANUS system fully automates all the sample extraction, magnetic separation, washing and elution steps required using templates that direct all pipetting, plate movement, heating, and shaking/mixing steps needed to prepare the viral RNA for RT-qPCR analysis.

The JANUS automated liquid handling workstation can enable:

  • Vacuum filtration techniques using NucleoSpin RNA Virus kit (Macherey-Nagel)
  • Magnetic bead techniques using the co-developed Chemagen/PerkinElmer viral RNA isolation kit.

Get the benefits:

  • Fully automated walk-away RNA extraction and PCR setup with integrated robotic gripper prepares purified samples that are suitable for PCR genotyping, microarrays, and sequence analysis.
  • Isolates Nucleic Acid from a variety of sample types in tube or plate format.
  • Automated procedures consistently provide high quality RNA with improved yields compared to manual sample processing with no cross contamination.
  • Increase throughput and process 96 samples in two hours for one or multiple plates.
  • Embedded contamination controls ensure precision pipetting on a per tip basis.
  • Chose between plate and tube heat blocks for sample extractions.
  • Choose between plates or tubes for purified DNA collection.

Recommended JANUS system configurations for Nucleic Acid Isolation Nucleic Acid Isolation

  • JANUS Expanded Deck 2 -Arm Platform with Varispan 4- or 8-tip arm and Integrated Gripper
  • VersaTip™ Plus
  • VARIOMAG Teleshake, 3 mm orbital diameter, or 4-plate IKA Shaker Option
  • Quad 105C/70C Heater Option
  • PerkinElmer 96-well Toroid Magnet
  • Low Volume Dispense Tip