Monitoring Antibodies for Swine Influenza H3N2 Virus

Swine influenza (SI) is an acute, infectious and highly contagious febrile respiratory disease of swine caused by type A influenza viruses. The disease causes high morbidity and low mortality, and is characterized by a sudden onset of coughing, dyspnea, fever and prostration. Reproductive failures can occur in sows.

The hemagglutination inhibition (HI) test is a customary method for the detection of antibodies against H3N2 and H1N1 viruses. The variability in performance of HI tests has been shown by previous studies to be dependent upon technique, test virus strain and propogation methods, indicator cell type, specimen pretreatment method and other factors. Interpretation of HI titer outcomes varies among diagnostic laboratories. These factors predispose HI tests to inherent variability and compromise the use of test results over time or among laboratories in production-monitoring programs.

The enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) is proven to be a versatile and less technique-dependent test than the HI test. Because the ELISA is a standardized test, its results are more easily reproduced, especially when comparing well-to-well and plate-to-plate results for ELISA and similar results for HI tests.

The HerdChek Swine Influenza H3N2 Antibody Test Kit and HerdChek Swine Influenza H1N1 Antibody Test Kit provide rapid screening for the presence of antibodies to swine influenza, indicating a herd's vaccine-immune response or exposure to the H3N2 and H1N1 types of SI viruses.

Monitoring the immune status of a herd can help to establish baselines for vaccination programs. It is also useful for detecting the presence of field SI viruses that are infecting the vaccinated animals. These field SI viruses can cause mild respiratory signs. Monitoring antibody titers can also indicate a clear SI outbreak due to new types of SI strains that are not present in the antigen formulation of the current vaccines, or indicate a lack of protection to resident SI viruses due to poor vaccine application, high maternal immune interference or immunosuppressive conditions currently occurring in the herd.

Monitoring the passive immunity from the sows to the piglets can help to determine the optimal time for vaccination in the face of maternal antibodies, and can play an important role in the control of swine influenza viruses.

Summary

The HerdChek Swine Influenza H3N2 and H1N1 Antibody Test Kits can provide you with:

• A better tool for monitoring maternal antibody decay, which can lead to improvements in the effectiveness of early influenza vaccinations
• A better tool for monitoring vaccine application, profiling herd immunity and detecting exposure to incidental field-virus introductions
  These are critical tasks for swine veterinarians because emerging strains of reassortant and variant swine influenza viruses pose continued challenges to respiratory and reproductive health problems.
• A proven versatile and less technique-dependent method than hemagglutination inhibition tests.

Product Characteristics

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