Tests to detect African swine fever (ASF) on surfaces may offer a new layer of protection for the U.S. as the swine industry proactively works to keep this deadly foreign animal disease out.
Jordan Gebhardt, Kansas State University swine production specialist and veterinarian, says scientists have used some common household items to test their ability to detect the presence of ASF on equipment and surfaces where animal feed is transported.
“This virus would be devastating to our domestic swine herd and would immediately shut off our export of pork products to other countries,” Gebhardt says in a K-State release. “So keeping the virus out is really important, and this is an area where a lot of research efforts are directed.”
Although it may seem like a simple research question, he says detecting the presence of ASF virus on the surfaces of trucks, shipping containers and other materials entering the U.S. requires a lot of complexity in how that is done.
The research originates from fieldwork conducted by K-State scientists in Vietnam and relies on diagnostic tests known as polymerase chain reaction (PCR). PCR tests use DNA or RNA from a sample to diagnose infectious disease. These tests can often give a reliable result within 24 hours or less.
Swab Success
The team of scientists swabbed surfaces that have come in close contact with feed using four materials that might be found in any consumer’s home such as a four-inch square cotton gauze, polyester tipped swabs, sponge sticks and a dry sweep cloth.
“If we want to test a surface -- whether that be a truck or a shipping container or a surface on a farm – we need to know how to collect a sample from that surface and then get the best diagnostic result we can to determine if the virus is present or not,” Gebhardt explains. “We call that process environmental sampling. To date, there hasn’t been a strong set of qualified research projects that have done a great job characterizing the simple question of what’s the best way to collect that sample.”
He believes K-State’s work helps to fill the gap that existed and should lead to another layer of biosecurity to help the swine industry.
“We’re doing this work to help prevent an introduction of African swine fever,” Gebhardt says. “But in the event of an incursion into the United States, we could use these techniques to understand more rapidly where the virus is and how we can implement additional control measures to prevent further spread of the pathogen.”
The team is also studying if viral DNA or viral RNA found on a surface is capable of causing infection.
“It’s a really important research question, and sometimes can be quite challenging, particularly with feed samples or environmental surface samples,” he says.
ASF affects both domestic and wild pigs. It is usually fatal and no treatment or vaccine is available in the U.S. This disease poses no human health risks or food safety concerns, but it has caused significant pig losses in Asia, Europe and Africa. ASF has not been discovered in the U.S. at this time.
Editor’s Note: This research is funded by the Cross-Border Threat Screening and Supply Chain Defense Center at Texas A&M University, which is funded through the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Click here for a full description of K-State’s study published online by the National Center for Biotechnology Information, a program supported by the U.S. National Institute of Health.
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