Comparison of automated extraction methods for the detection of hepatitis A virus and norovirus in mussels.

Noroviruses and hepatitis A virus are the pathogens most frequently involved in non-bacterial gastroenteritis and hepatitis worldwide. They are mainly transmitted via the faecal-oral route, direct person-to-person contact or through the consumption of contaminated water and foods. In food virology, detection methods of these viruses are currently based on real-time reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). A crucial step in this process is the acid nucleic extraction, since its performance can negatively influence viral detection and thus give false negative results. The aim of this study is to evaluate the efficiency of 2 automated extraction systems, MagMAX Express and EZ1 Advanced XL, in recovering hepatitis A virus and norovirus RNA from mussels. In the present study, we used mengovirus as a process control to assess the efficiency of the extraction process. Samples were tested for mengovirus, hepatitis A, and norovirus by real time one-step RT-PCR assay. Our data indicates the MagMax Express is the better system to extract hepatitis A and norovirus RNA from mussels since its extraction efficiency was higher (p<0.05) than EZ1 Advanced XL.