PRRS Surveillance in breeding herds and nurseries using tongue tips

 Vet Sci

. 2021 Nov 2;8(11):259.

 doi: 10.3390/vetsci8110259.

Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome Surveillance in breeding Herds and Nurseries Using Tongue Tips from Dead Animals

Jordi Baliellas 1, Elena Novell 1, Vicens Enric-Tarancón 1, Carles Vilalta 2, Lorenzo Fraile 3 4

Affiliations 

Affiliations

• 1Grup de Sanejament Porcí, 25192 Lleida, Spain.
• 2Upnorth Analytics, Arbeca, 25140 Lleida, Spain.
• 3Agrotecnio Center, 25198 Lleida, Spain.
• 4Departament de Ciència Animal, ETSEA, University de Lleida, 25198 Lleida, Spain.

• PMID: 34822632
 
• PMCID: PMC8625958
 
• DOI: 10.3390/vetsci8110259

Free PMC article

Abstract

The detection capacity of Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome virus (PRRSV) in tongues from dead animals in breeding herds (stillborns and piglets dying during the lactating period) and nursery farms (naturally dead animals) for PRRSV surveillance was evaluated. The samples were selected if pairs of serum and tongues were available from 2018 to 2020. Serum (pools of five) and exudate from tongues (one bag) were analyzed by PRRSV RT-PCR. The agreement between the serum sample procedure versus tongues exudate was assessed using a concordance test (Kappa statistic) at batch level. A total of 32 submissions, corresponding to 14 farms, had PRRSV diagnostic information for serum and tongues exudate. The overall agreement of batch classification as positive or negative, based on RT-PCR PRRSV results, between serum and tongue exudate of the 32 pairs was 76.9%. Cohen's Kappa was 0.55. The main discrepancy came from the presence of positive samples in tongues exudate and not in serum, suggesting that tongue exudate to monitor PRRSV seems to be more sensitive than serum. These results suggest that this sample procedure could be also used for PRRSV surveillance and monitoring.

Keywords: PRRSV; monitoring; swine; tongues exudate.