Noroviruses (NoVs) are widespread causes of nonbacterial gastroenteritis. Outbreaks of NoVs caused diseases are commonly ascribed to the consumption of contaminated shellfish. The concentration and RNA extraction of NoVs are crucial steps of detecting NoVs in shellfish. This study aimed to select a simple, rapid and highly efficient recovery method of NoVs detection with real-time RT-PCR. Four methods of recovering GI.3 and GII.4 NoVs from spiked digestive tissues of oysters and clams, respectively, were compared, of them, the method involving proteinase K and PEG 8000 was found the most efficient. With this method, 9.3% and 13.1% of GI.3 and GII.4 NoVs were recovered from oysters and 9.6% and 12.3% of GI.3 and GII.4 NoVs were recovered from clams, respectively. This method was further used to detect NoVs in 84 oysters (Crassostrea gigas) and 86 clams (Ruditapes philippinarum) collected from 10 coastal cities in China from Jan. 2011 to Feb. 2012. The NoVs isolation rates were 10.47% of clams (9/86) and 7.14% of oysters (6/84). All the detected NoVs belonged to genotype GII. The NoVs recovery method selected is efficient for NoVs detection in oysters and clams.
