Do regularly touched surfaces by farm personnel include PRRSV?
4 August 2025
3 minute learn
Farm biosecurity measures and the extent of compliance play a vital position in an trade the place one particular person oversees giant populations of rising pigs throughout completely different websites. Rising pig caretakers transfer between websites to conduct every day chores corresponding to guaranteeing barns are properly ventilated and pigs have correct entry to feed and water. As most rising pig websites lack shower-in/shower-out amenities, there’s a likelihood of fomite contamination and virus dissemination throughout websites of various porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (PRRSV) statuses.
Understanding whether or not regularly touched surfaces by personnel include viable PRRSV is essential for elevating consciousness of the transmission danger and inspiring the trade to rethink and implement biocontainment procedures.
A floor contamination evaluation sampling mission was performed in PRRSV-positive rising pig farms utilizing a novel viability quantitative RT-qPCR (v-RT-qPCR) assay, to:
- decide whether or not viable PRRSV may be detected on regularly touched surfaces by farm personnel,
- assess whether or not the extent of PRRSV inhabitants shedding and the likelihood of detecting viable PRRSV are associated,
- discover the connection between customary and v-RT-qPCR for PRRSV detection underneath area circumstances.
The examine was performed by C.M. Melini and colleagues, College of Minnesota, USA, and introduced through the 2024 North American PRRS Symposium.
Ten PRRSV-positive rising pig farms situated within the Midwest, USA, from one manufacturing system had been enrolled on this cross-sectional examine. Given the shortage of PRRSV environmental detection knowledge and standardized protocols for sampling, sampling was based mostly on a beforehand performed PRRSV environmental examine. Twenty samples from completely different surfaces per farm had been collected. Investigators wore clear Tyvek coveralls, plastic cowl boots, and a clear pair of gloves throughout pattern assortment, altering gloves between every sampling occasion.
Chosen surfaces had been swiped with a DMEM moistened Swiffer pad and positioned in a resealable bag. The pad was squeezed contained in the bag and the liquid was poured into 20 ml sterile Falcon tubes. Through the farm go to, a set of 8 ropes (16 pens) per barn had been hung to gather oral fluids to characterize the extent of inhabitants shedding within the barn.
Samples had been refrigerated and transported to the College of Minnesota for processing and submitted to the Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory for particular person PRRSV screening by RT-PCR. Constructive samples had been then despatched for additional testing by way of viability RT-qPCR testing.
PRRSV was detected by oral fluids on all farms, with the proportion of optimistic ropes starting from 50 to 100%. Total, 20 out of 200 (10%) environmental samples had been optimistic on the screening RT-PCR with Ct values starting from 32.8 to 35.9.
Constructive samples originated from pig pen penning housing sick pigs, common pig pen penning housing, mortality dealing with tools, exhaust pit fan cone mud, sorting board deal with, and fundamental entry flooring near bench or line of separation. On the time of writing, RT-PCR optimistic samples had been not too long ago submitted for v-RT-qPCR and outcomes weren’t out there.
