A real-time reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) assay was developed for the fast and highly sensitive detection of the sacbrood virus (SBV) genome and applied to honeybee samples. Using plasmid DNA containing a partial SBV genome and diluted serially, as few as 1×10(2)copies/μl (correlation co-efficiency >0.99) were detected by the qRT-PCR assay, whereas 1×10(3)copies/μl were detected by the conventional RT-PCR assay. As a rapid detection method, ultra-rapid real-time PCR (URRT-PCR) was carried out with a GenSpector TMC-1000 silicon-glass chip-based thermal cycler, which has a 6μl micro-chamber volume and a fast outstandingly heating/cooling rate. Using this method, 10(3)copies of pBX-SBV3.8 clone were detected within 17 min after 40 PCR cycles, including melting point analysis. To reduce the detection time for SBV, synthesis of the cDNA of the SBV genome from a honeybee sample was attempted for different reaction times and the cDNA was used as the template for URRT-PCR assays. The results indicated that a 5 min reaction time was sufficient to synthesize cDNA as the template for the SBV URRT-PCR assay. This study described a novel PCR-based method that is able to detect an RNA virus in environmental samples within 22 min, including reverse transcription, PCR detection and melting point analysis in real-time.