Research conducted by Cornell University is helping improve the effectiveness of next generation sequencing in identifying emerging swine viruses. A Swine Health Information Center funded study conducted by Cornell University has resulted in the development of an alternative method for enriching viral sequencing in swine biological samples when conventional enrichment methods are not feasible.
Dr. Lisa Becton, the Associate Director of the Swine Health Information Center, says by removing host and bacterial genetic material from samples submitted for diagnostic testing researchers were able to improve the detection sensitivity of next generation sequencing.
Quote-Dr. Lisa Becton-Swine Health Information Center:
Next generation sequencing or NGS really helps to broadly detect new and emerging diseases but it can be limited by samples that have low viral load.It can also be high cost and has decreased sensitivity due to host and non target genetic sequences in a sample so it's important to be able to identify technologies that can increase the sensitivity to be able to detect true swine pathogens in submitted samples.
This new alternative enrichment protocol can reduce the time for results because, in the process, material to be evaluated is directly extracted from nucleic acid and can be used for additional metagenomic sequencing so it speeds up the time to dig into the genetics of the viruses identified and speed up the process.
In addition, it can increase the ability to detect DNA viruses and the cost is variable at a little bit more than 31 dollars per sample. The test could detect a lot of DNA viruses but there is a desire to increase the detection of RNA viruses such as PRRS and Senaca A viruses and detect those more efficiently as well as how to make the samples and the tests more costs effective.
Full details of the Cornell University study can be accessed through the Swine Health information Center's May eNewsletter at swinehealth.org.
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