Porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (PRRSV) primarily infects ma
ID: 97701 • Letter: P
Question
Porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (PRRSV) primarily infects macrophage cells (in the lung tissues) during early stage of infection. PRRSV infection can cause respiratory problem in pigs, disrupts growth, and causes abortions in sows. You suspect some young pigs, but not all of them, on your farm have been infected with PRRSV. You need to design an experiment to identify infected pigs from non-infected pigs so you can separate them and raise them till they reach market weight. Describe your approach in detail. Note: PRRSV strain VR-2332 (gi#11192298) encodes 9 open reading frames. Among them, there are commercially available polyclonal antibodies made in rabbits against PRRSV nucleocapsid protein N.
Explanation / Answer
Since we have an antibody made for the nuclear capsid of the virus, we can directly take blood samples from the pigs and titrate it with the antibody, the one that shows aggregation or clumps would be the one infected with it. This way we can distinguish between infected and non- infected pigs.