Influenza surveillance in pigs: balancing act between broad diagnostic coverage and specific virus characterization.

Background: Monitoring of infectious diseases on swine farms requires a high diagnostic sensitivity and specificity of the test system. Moreover, particularly in cases of swine influenza A virus (swIAV) it is desirable to include characterization of the virus as precisely as possible. This is indispensable for strategies concerning prophylaxis of swIAV and furthermore, to meet the requirements of a purposeful monitoring of newly emerging swIAV strains in terms of vaccine design and public health.

Viral and Bacterial Profiles in Endemic Influenza A Virus Infected Swine Herds Using Nanopore Metagenomic Sequencing on Tracheobronchial Swabs.

Swine influenza A virus (swIAV) plays an important role in porcine respiratory infections. In addition to its ability to cause severe disease by itself, it is important in the multietiological porcine respiratory disease complex. Still, to date, no comprehensive diagnostics with which to study polymicrobial infections in detail have been offered.

Implementation of piglet castration under inhalation anaesthesia on farrowing farms.

Background: Since 01.01.2021, suckling piglets may no longer be castrated without anaesthesia in Germany.

[Investigations on suckling piglets castrated under automated isoflurane anesthesia].

Objective: Investigation of defensive reactions, piglet losses, post-bleeding and recovery time of suckling piglets castrated under automated isoflurane anesthesia as well as measurements of isoflurane concentrations in ambient air and estimation of the cleaning and disinfection success of anesthesia masks.

Material And Methods: A total of 955 suckling piglets (age: 4.0 ± 1.

Reproductive performance of pandemic influenza A virus infected sow herds before and after implementation of a vaccine against the influenza A (H1N1)pdm09 virus.

Background: Reproductive failure in sow herds due to infection with influenza A viruses has been described in the literature, but only a few studies have focused on the pathogenesis and the clinical signs of the infection. Case reports indicate an association between infections with influenza A viruses and reduced reproductive performance, although it has been difficult to experimentally reproduce the clinical outcome of poor reproductive performance. The aim of the present longitudinal field study was to compare the reproductive performance parameters before and after the implementation of vaccination against the influenza A (H1N1)pdm09 virus in sow herds infected with pandemic influenza A virus.

The Munich MIDY Pig Biobank - A unique resource for studying organ crosstalk in diabetes.

Objective: The prevalence of diabetes mellitus and associated complications is steadily increasing. As a resource for studying systemic consequences of chronic insulin insufficiency and hyperglycemia, we established a comprehensive biobank of long-term diabetic transgenic pigs, a model of mutant gene-induced diabetes of youth (MIDY), and of wild-type (WT) littermates.

Methods: Female MIDY pigs (n = 4) were maintained with suboptimal insulin treatment for 2 years, together with female WT littermates (n = 5).