ABSTRACT
Ross River virus (RRV) is a mosquito-borne pathogen that causes a debilitating arthritis that can persist for months or years [1]. RRV is endemic to Australia and Papua New Guinea and is the most common cause of arboviral disease in Australia, with more than 5000 cases recorded each year [2]. All conrmed cases of RRV disease in Australia must be reported to a national register of arboviral infections (National Notiable Diseases Surveillance System), therefore accurate and efcient methods of diagnosis are essential [2]. Effective surveillance of RRV activity in mosquito populations and nonhuman reservoir hosts also requires sensitive and specic assays to rapidly detect the virus and allow rapid deployment of vector control strategies [3]. The focus of this chapter is to summarize the current methods for RRV diagnosis and discuss the role of molecular methods in this context, including their application to detect viral RNA in clinical samples and mosquitoes. For a more comprehensive descriptions of RRV pathogenesis, ecology, and epidemiology the reader is referred to excellent reviews by Marshall and Miles [4], Kay and Aaskov [3], Mackenzie et al. [5], Mackenzie and Smith [6], Harley et al. [1], Russell [7], Rulli et al. [8], Rulli et al., [9], Jacups et al. [10], and Tong et al. [11].
