The annual cost of PRRS to the global swine industry is estimated at $664M. Costs are high due to the virus’ virulence and transmissibility, but especially because of its high mutation rate, which allows the virus to continuously change and escape the pig’s immune system.

The VetMAX PRRSV EU & NA 2.0 Kit has been evaluated by laboratories and research institutes in Austria, Belgium, Slovenia, Spain and the United Kingdom. The kit reliably detects all four subtypes (I, II, III and IV) of the Type 1 PRRSV strain currently circulating in Western, Central and Eastern Europe, as well as the Type 2 (NA) PRRSV strain, including the Highly Pathogenic (HP) strain. The field validation results showed 99.5 percent sensitivity and 99.6 percent specificity of the kit.

“An advanced design was utilized for our new kit so we are prepared for future mutations of the virus,” said Dr. Sandrine Moine, R&D manager animal health at Thermo Fisher Scientific. “The ready-to-use triplex RT-PCR kits can simultaneously amplify target RNA of EU and NA type strains as well as an exogenous internal control. The kit also offers the convenience of a simple and fast workflow that will obtain results in less than two hours.”

Kit Validation Results

More than 780 field samples were correctly identified as positive or negative for PRRS virus by six partner laboratories using the VetMAX PRRSV EU & NA 2.0 Kit in combination with the Applied Biosystems MagMAX CORE Nucleic Acid Purification Kit. The samples, from a variety of different herds across the EU, were identified correctly with 99.5 percent sensitivity. The VetMAX PRRSV EU & NA 2.0 Kit showed a higher sensitivity compared to other commercial PCR kits, with results of an average of three cycle times lower.

“Our kit offers the most up-to-date PRRS virus PCR diagnostics which detects all currently known circulating EU strains to allow veterinary diagnostic laboratories to provide highly reliable results to veterinarians and pig owners,” Martin Guillet, global head and general manager for AgriBusiness at Thermo Fisher Scientific. “This is another great example of our mission to enable our customers to make the world healthier, cleaner and safer.”

For more information about the VetMAX PRRSV EU & NA 2.0 Kit, please visit www.thermofisher.com/animalhealth.

For more information about swine diagnostics, click here or connect to the Thermo Fisher Scientific Swine Resource Center.