Detection of Pseudorabies Virus Antibody in Swine Oral Fluid

April 8, 2020 — 

Pseudorabies virus has been pretty much off the radar since its eradication from U.S. commercial herds in 2004, but COVID-19 is teaching us (again) that the world is small and we are all connected. So a short reminder that PRV is still around may be useful. [Source: National Hog Farmer 7 April 2020]

Beginning in the 1960s, clinical losses from PRV were an increasing problem in commercial swine herds in Europe, the Americas and Southeast Asia. In the United States, annual losses to producers from PRV reached $21 million to $25 million (USD) (Miller et al., 1996). The greatest challenge for PRV control and elimination was identifying healthy carrier animals -- animals in perfect health that, when stressed by other infections, gestation or farrowing, would shed virus to susceptible animals in the herd and cause outbreaks. Pseudorabies virus has been pretty much off the radar since its eradication from U.S. commercial herds in 2004, but COVID-19 is teaching us (again) that the world is small and we are all connected. So a short reminder that PRV is still around may be useful. Beginning in the 1960s, clinical losses from PRV were an increasing problem in commercial swine herds in Europe, the Americas and Southeast Asia. In the United States, annual losses to producers from PRV reached $21 million to $25 million (USD) (Miller et al., 1996). The greatest challenge for PRV control and elimination was identifying healthy carrier animals -- animals in perfect health that, when stressed by other infections, gestation or farrowing, would shed virus to susceptible animals in the herd and cause outbreaks.

These silent or "latent" infections in carrier animals occurred because the virus was able to move into the central nervous system shortly after infection and persist in nervous tissue without producing any infectious viral particles. Because the virus does not replicate during latency, it cannot be detected by polymerase chain reaction or virus isolation in typical diagnostic specimens, e.g., serum, using routine diagnostic procedures (Mettenleiter et al., 2012).

Read more at National Hog Farmer.