Porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (PRRSV) primarily infects ma
ID: 99538 • 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
Blood samples of the pigs are to be collected.
The samples are incubated.
The cells in the blood are discarded by centrifugation and the serum is obtained.
The serum is tested for the presence of the virus using the polyclonal antibody available by ELISA.
Alternatively,
Since the strain is particulartly suspected to be PRRSV VR-2332 which normally occurs in North america. qPCR with available kits can give quicker results.