摘要 : The earliest possible detection of pathogens is of utmost importance in limiting the spread of contagious diseases, such as Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome Virus (PRRSV) and Porcine Circovirus Type 2 (PCV-2). Alterna... 展开 The earliest possible detection of pathogens is of utmost importance in limiting the spread of contagious diseases, such as Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome Virus (PRRSV) and Porcine Circovirus Type 2 (PCV-2). Alternative sample matrices must enable sensitive detection of these swine pathogens without the need for standard blood collection in pigs by venipuncture. Here, we investigate the potential use of GenoTube swabs for PCR detection of PRRSV and PCV-2 in individual blood and oral fluid swabs from pigs after experimental PRRSV infection. The results were compared with matched serum and pen-wise collected oral fluid. It was shown that PCV-2 detection in GenoTube blood swabs, oral fluid swabs and pen-wise oral fluid is at least as sensitive as in serum, while PRRSV detection is most sensitive in serum, followed by the blood swabs and oral fluids. A good correlation was observed between PCV-2 and PRRSV loads in serum and blood swabs, while there was little or no correlation between serum and oral fluids. A modified extraction protocol enabled further improvement of PRRSV RNA recovery from GenoTube swabs. Furthermore, we show that GenoTube swabs are suitable for long-term (up to 56 days) storage of specimens at room temperature without significant influence on PRRSV RNA stability. In conclusion, blood and oral fluid collected by GenoTube swabs are practical and reasonable sample matrices for PRRSV and PCV-2 detection by RTq-PCR and qPCR, respectively. However, it has to be kept in mind that viral loads in oral fluid do not accurately reflect those in serum. 收起