Comparison of two diagnostic methods for the detection of the porcine influenza virus

Abstract

Due to the lack of a rapid, sensitive and specific test to detect the presence of the porcine influenza virus that offers advantages in field conditions, it is necessary to try different options to obtain a rapid and reliable diagnosis. To do so, samples of nasal mucus, obtained with sterile swabs, were taken from 100 pigs with signs of the presence of such virus. These samples were used to compare two different methods for the detection of the porcine influenza virus. The first one was a commercial test, which is based on a rapid immunochromatography designed to detect the influenza virus type A in poultry. The second method consisted in the viral isolation in cell culture, using MDCK cells sensitized with trypsin; this method, already described in former processes, was compared with the first method, using nasal mucus samples from possible infected pigs with the influenza virus. The results showed that in the immunochromatography test, ten samples were positive, while only eight in the cell culture. Therefore, the immunochromatography was 100% sensitive to detect the influenza virus. The development of this work is important because it offers options in the porcine influenza diagnosis in field conditions, using the rapid immunochromatography test, which suggests that the results must be confirmed in the diagnostic laboratory through viral isolation.