Colostrum may be best sample for PCV2 on sow farms
Colostrum may be the best sample to test for determining whether porcine circovirus type 2 (PCV2) is present in sow herds, according to researchers at Iowa State University (ISU).1
In a study involving 78 sows from three unvaccinated sow farms, investigators tested sow colostrum, sow serum, piglet serum and placental umbilical cord serum (PUCS) to see which was the best to use for detecting PCV2 DNA by polymerase chain reaction.
Within 4 hours of farrowing, they also obtained serum and PUCS samples from piglets of the sows tested on each farm. Piglet serum and PUCS samples were pooled by sow, explained Rachel Schulte, an ISU student, at the 2017 American Association of Swine Veterinarians annual meeting.
Nearly 13% of colostrum samples were positive compared to only 6% of sow serum samples, 10% of PUCS samples and 0% of piglet serum samples. In every case where PUCS samples were positive, the sow colostrum or serum tested negative, she reported.
“The absence of positive piglet serum samples may indicate that this sampling method is an unreliable means of detection or that none of the piglets were viremic,” Schulte said, based on the study, conducted jointly with the Fairmont Veterinary Clinic, Minnesota, and sponsored by Zoetis.
1. Schulte R, et al. Sample comparison for detecting porcine circovirus type 2 in breeding herds. . In: Proceedings of the 48th Annual Meeting of the American Association of Swine Veterinarians (February 25-28, 2017). Page 72.
Posted on June 20, 2017