A University of Illinois research team has developed several viral smoke detector-like prototypes, adapted from the bioAerium airborne pathogen sensing platform previously invented by Dr. Igor Paprotny, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Illinois Chicago, in collaboration with Dr. Michael Caffrey, College of Medicine at University of Illinois Chicago, to operate in swine farm environments.
Results showed the prototypes were able to consistently detect PRRSV with sensitivity comparable to that obtained through oral fluid sampling. Pork producers and their veterinarians would consequently have an effective, inexpensive, less hands-on method for virus detection, should the prototype be further refined and developed for commercial use.
This study, funded by Swine Health Information Center (SHIC), had a goal of developing a viral smoke detector-like device for use in swine barns to autonomously detect viral pathogens directly from air in a continuous fashion. Paprotny and Caffrey worked with Dr. Ying Fang and Dr. Joseph Connor of the University of Illinois College of Veterinary Medicine.
Some of the key outcomes included:
- Validated the utility of use of viral smoke detector for automated detection of PRRSV infections in swine barns
- Developed novel loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) assays for detection of PRRSV with high specificity
- Swine farm testing informed modifications that make the viral smoke detector more robust for year-round swine barn operation
- Mapped out modifications necessary to allow the smoke detector-like device to differentiate PRRSV vaccine and wildtype strains in next generation prototypes
“The overarching goal of the project was to develop a new biosecurity tool to allow producers to reduce losses to their swine population through active monitoring and early outbreak detection,” SHIC wrote in a release. “The more specific objective of this project was to adapt the bioAerium platform, a real-time detector for airborne viral pathogens (called a viral smoke detector) for rapid sensing of airborne swine viruses.”
The smoke detector performance was to be validated in actual swine farm environments. The sensor uses nucleic acid amplification (NAA) techniques to achieve high sensitivity necessary for real-time airborne pathogen detection. Specifically, aerosol collection is automatically followed by an NAA technique called LAMP. LAMP has a comparable sensitivity to polymerase chain reaction but avoids temperature cycling, facilitating use in an inexpensive field-deployable device, SHIC explained.
“The project initially focused on three target viruses: PRRSV, IAV-S and PEDV,” SHIC wrote. “However, based on feedback from producers, the focus switched to PRRSV largely due to its significant impact on domestic swine production, and because the sensor can be easily adapted to detect other target viruses by simply swapping target reagents.”
Once commercialized, these viral smoke detectors are expected to be inexpensive and able to simultaneously test for multiple viral pathogens, SHIC wrote. A network of such sensors deployed throughout the farm could potentially enable producers to continuously obtain a real-time snapshot and support early detection of essentially any airborne infections in their swine population.
Paprotny and his team note that the results indicate that these prototype viral smoke detectors could be used as an effective tool for continuous monitoring of viral infections in swine populations and can assist the producers in early identification of emerging outbreaks.
