Use of trachea-bronchial swab qPCR testing to confirm seropositivity in an SPF breeding herd.

Background: A dedicated program to monitor for freedom of several economically important diseases is present within most of the breeding companies that currently deliver high health breeding animals to their customers. Serology is therefore the preferential approach in order to screen for most of these diseases, including (). However, in case of positive serology, further decisions on farm health status and the related consequences should be based on additional confirmation tests.