Farms.com Home   News

SHIC-FUNDED STUDY DISCOVERS FIRST ASSOCIATION BETWEEN ASTROVIRUS AND RESPIRATORY PATHOLOGY IN PIGS

A study funded by the Swine Health Information Center and conducted by Drs. Michael Rahe and Rachel Derscheid of the Iowa State University Veterinary Diagnostic Lab is the first to report astrovirus being associated with respiratory pathology in pigs. In their work, “Direct detection of porcine epitheliotropic viruses: porcine astrovirus 4, porcine hemagglutinating encephalomyelitis, and porcine parainfluenza virus in clinical cases of undiagnosed respiratory disease,” the researchers report PoAstV4 was detected in lesions consistent with viral respiratory infection in 73% of pigs tested.

Astroviruses affect mammals and birds with infection typically resulting in gastroenteritis, neurologic disease, or asymptomatic infection. PoAstV4 has been detected in the upper respiratory tract of pigs with clinical respiratory disease but until Drs. Rahe and Derscheid’s study, recently published in Transboundary and Emerging Diseases, an association of the virus with respiratory pathology had not been demonstrated.

Researchers noted a 2016 paper that described the use of next generation sequencing for the detection of PoAstV4 in nasal swabs from young pigs with clinical respiratory disease. But it was not until recent diagnostic efforts at the ISU VDL that PoAstV4 was also found in the lungs of young pigs with diagnosed bronchitis and/or tracheitis. Due to the possibility of PoAstV4 contaminating lung tissue during necropsy or sample collection, simply finding the virus via PCR or NGS did not confirm it was the cause of the clinical disease.

Drs. Rahe and Derscheid’s study sought to answer the question of disease association by investigating if PoAstV4 could be detected within the microscopic lesions of diseased respiratory tissues. The diagnostic technique used detected PoAstV4, porcine hemagglutinating encephalomyelitis virus, and porcine parainfluenza virus in 117 influenza-negative bronchitis and/or tracheitis cases in young pigs.  

Click here to see more...

Trending Video

Chicken Farmers of Canada's Young Farmers Program

Video: Chicken Farmers of Canada's Young Farmers Program

Are you a Canadian chicken farmer between the ages of 18-40!? Apply today to join the Young Farmers Program at Chicken Farmers of Canada!

The Chicken Farmers of Canada’s Young Farmer Program is a professional development program that teaches young leaders in the chicken sector about governance, succession planning and personal branding, while also getting to network with key agriculture and government stakeholders.