Stefaan Ribbens | PubMed Health

PubMed2006

[Mental notes in tracking BVDV carriers].

The detection and elimination of animals persistently infected with bovine viral diarrhoea virus (BVDV) is the key to BVD control. This method has proven to be very efficient in eradicating BVDV in a herd. Several pitfalls in the detection procedure can make that some persistently infected (PI) animals do not get identified or are removed too late, supporting the assumption that circulation of the virus could be possible in absence of PI animals. Furthermore the risk of reintroduction is high since the prevalence of BVD is high in the Netherlands and Belgium. Based on both practical experience and literature, here we review critical control points in order to minimise the risk of a false negative BVDV screening.

Animal Husbandry↗

PubMed2004

Analytical performance of several classical swine fever laboratory diagnostic techniques on live animals for detection of infection.

The diagnostic properties of several assays on live animals were studied using data from different experiments. These experiments involved 128 classical swine fever virus (CSFV) infected pigs (weaner pigs, fatteners and sows). Since all pigs in the study were infected with CSFV, only the proportion of test positive results and the time until a test positive result is obtained were evaluated. The RT-nPCR detected the highest proportion of infected pigs (98.9%), whereas the Antigen ELISA gave the worst detection results (74.7%). Within the group of test positive animals, infection was detected earliest using the leukocyte count and latest using Antigen ELISA. Using the virus neutralisation test, antibodies against CSFV were detectable on average 7.6 days after the onset of viraemia in virus isolation in whole blood. Using survival analysis, the time until the first positive diagnosis and the proportion of detected animals were combined in one test. Results showed that RT-nPCR performed significantly better than either virus isolation in different blood fractions or antigen ELISA. It is concluded that the RT-nPCR technique is the best diagnostic tool available for early detection of a classical swine fever infection.

Animals↗