Exploring possibilities of diagnosing, control and eradication of porcine respiratory and reproductive syndrome (PRRS)
Porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome is a pervasive disease that often seriously affects the health status of the animals and may lead to severe economic losses. Substantial efforts have been made to promptly diagnose this disease, and this paper presents an overview of clinical and laboratory investigation of PRRS in all animal categories within an industrial pig herd. Suspect disease was identified by clinical observation, and virus identification and detection of specific antibodies in suspect material were confirmed by laboratory examination. Isolation and identification of the virus from samples obtained from dead and sacrificed piglets was carried out on cell cultures (MARK-145) using fluorescence antibody technique, and molecular-biology techniques (RT-PCR and nested PCR) were applied for detecting viral genome in native sperm samples. Presence of PRRS-specific antibodies was investigated in blood serum samples of boars by the use of ELISA. The virus was isolated from the suspect material of sacrificed piglet, and in two more sacrificed animals the virus was detected by the fluorescent antibody technique. The PRRS viral genome could not be detected in the native sperm of 10 boars even after triple sampling. Specific antibodies against PRRS were detected in 37 out of 42 examined boars.