Preface.- acknowledgements.- chapter 1: background.- 1. aims of this book, 2. what is pcr?, 3. what is the use of pcr?. 4. pcr and infectious diseases -the veterinary picture, 5. laboratory diagnostic technology, 6. references.- chapter two: traditional pcr, 1. traditional pcr, 2. pcr reaction, 3. pcr set up and optimization, 4. the pcr plateau effect, 5. radioisotope-pcr based methods, 6. references.- chapter three: real time pcr. the basic principles: 1. traditional pcr versus real time pcr, 2. optimising a real time pcr reaction, 3. references.- chapter four: new trends in the diagnosis and molecular epidemiology of viral diseases: 1. background, 2. pcr methods used in routine molecular diagnostics, 3. acknowledgements, 4. references.- chapter five: disease diagnosis using real-time pcr specific procedures for important veterinary pathogens.- chapter six: pcr laboratory set-up: 1. establishment of a pcr laboratory.- 2. quality assurance programme or accreditation.- 3. references.- chapter seven: analysis and troublesho0ting.- chapter eight: specifications for pcr machines.- glossary of terms.- index.