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Updated: Mar 11, 2026
High-throughput Detection of Respiratory Pathogens in Animal Specimens by Nanoscale PCR
Published on: November 28, 2016
A novel quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction method for detecting toxigenic Pasteurella multocida in
Simone Scherrer1, Daniel Frei2, Max Michael Wittenbrink2
1Vetsuisse Faculty, Institute of Veterinary Bacteriology, University of Zurich, Winterthurerstrasse 270, 8057, Zurich, Switzerland. simone.scherrer@vetbakt.uzh.ch.
Background:
Progressive atrophic rhinitis (PAR) in pigs is caused by toxigenic Pasteurella multocida. In Switzerland, PAR is monitored by selective culture of nasal swabs and subsequent polymerase chain reaction (PCR) screening of bacterial colonies for the P. multocida toxA gene. A panel of 203 nasal swabs from a recent PAR outbreak were used to evaluate a novel quantitative real-time PCR for toxigenic P. multocida in porcine nasal swabs.
Results:
In comparison to the conventional PCR with a limit of detection of 100 genome equivalents per PCR reaction, the real-time PCR had a limit of detection of 10 genome equivalents. The real-time PCR detected toxA-positive P. multocida in 101 samples (49.8%), whereas the conventional PCR was less sensitive with 90 toxA-positive samples (44.3%). In comparison to the real-time PCR, 5.4% of the toxA-positive samples revealed unevaluable results by conventional PCR.
Conclusions:
The approach of culture-coupled toxA PCR for the monitoring of PAR in pigs is substantially improved by a novel quantitative real-time PCR.
