Snout wipes shown to be practical, efficient method for detecting swine influenza A

Snout wipes are a practical and efficient method of detecting influenza A virus in swine (IAV-S), according to a study presented at the 2017 annual meeting of the American Association of Swine Veterinarians.¹

The snout-wipe technique has been shown to be an effective and non-invasive sampling technique in an exhibition setting, but researchers wanted to validate its usefulness in a commercial setting, explained Joel Steckelberg, an Iowa State University student.

He and colleagues conducted their study on recently placed nursery pigs with clinical signs of IAV-S such as coughing and nasal discharge. They obtained samples from pigs in different nurseries and sampled each pig by snout wipe, oropharyngeal swab and nasal swab. There were 60 samples for each testing method. Based on a polymerase chain reaction technique, they found no significant differences between sample types, Steckelberg said.

The IAV-S status of recently weaned pigs needs to be known to make informed vaccination and protocol decisions. The results of the study, sponsored by Zoetis, validates the snout-wipe technique as useful for accurately reflecting IAV-S status, he said.

1. Steckelberg J, et al. Validation of snout wipes to detect influenza A virus in swine (IAV-S). In: Proceedings of the 48^th Annual Meeting of the American Association of Swine Veterinarians (February 25-28, 2017). Page 248.