Detection and description of influenza a virus transmission in commercial weaned pigs in Illinois, USA
type: CreativeWork
description: Influenza A virus in swine (IAV-S) is a zoonotic and key pathogen in the swine respiratory disease complex. IAV-S is of particular importance because of the implications on human health, as seen during the 2009 swine flu pandemic. Surveillance of IAV-S is useful in monitoring for mutations that confer increased pathogenicity and virulence. Commercial swine are thought to be the diversity reservoir for H1N1 and H3N2 viruses, due to the abundance of strains in circulation. We hypothesize that weaned piglets are the most likely to become infected with influenza A virus; subsequently, this is the age most suitable to target for surveillance. This age of piglets has the challenges of environmental stressors, such as weaning, transportation, comingling, diet change, and environmental temperature change. At the same time, the immune system of mammals at this age is particularly vulnerable since maternally derived immunity is waning while simultaneously interfering with the piglet’s ability to mount an adaptive response. Taken together, weaned piglets represent ideal hosts for infectious pathogen amplification and transmission. Very few point-of-care tests are available for livestock, with only one commercially licensed product for influenza detection in swine. We developed a pandemic Matrix gene detection method via Reverse Transcription Loop-Mediated Isothermal Amplification (LAMP) to help address this problem. The first study was performed to develop the primers and test the assay's sensitivity, limit of detection, and specificity using intercalating dye and fluorescence detection in an RT-qPCR machine. Optimized primers were then tagged with biotin and streptavidin to allow for a point-of-care detection method using a lateral flow dipstick readout. The primer modification integrated an additional specificity step to the assay, subsequently improving the limit of detection from 88 copies per reaction to 4.5 copies per reaction, facilitated by a longer assay incubation. T…
abstract: Influenza A virus in swine (IAV-S) is a zoonotic and key pathogen in the swine respiratory disease complex. IAV-S is of particular importance because of the implications on human health, as seen during the 2009 swine flu pandemic. Surveillance of IAV-S is useful in monitoring for mutations that confer increased pathogenicity and virulence. Commercial swine are thought to be the diversity reservoir for H1N1 and H3N2 viruses, due to the abundance of strains in circulation. We hypothesize that weaned piglets are the most likely to become infected with influenza A virus; subsequently, this is the age most suitable to target for surveillance. This age of piglets has the challenges of environmental stressors, such as weaning, transportation, comingling, diet change, and environmental temperature change. At the same time, the immune system of mammals at this age is particularly vulnerable since maternally derived immunity is waning while simultaneously interfering with the piglet’s ability to mount an adaptive response. Taken together, weaned piglets represent ideal hosts for infectious pathogen amplification and transmission. Very few point-of-care tests are available for livestock, with only one commercially licensed product for influenza detection in swine. We developed a pandemic Matrix gene detection method via Reverse Transcription Loop-Mediated Isothermal Amplification (LAMP) to help address this problem. The first study was performed to develop the primers and test the assay's sensitivity, limit of detection, and specificity using intercalating dye and fluorescence detection in an RT-qPCR machine. Optimized primers were then tagged with biotin and streptavidin to allow for a point-of-care detection method using a lateral flow dipstick readout. The primer modification integrated an additional specificity step to the assay, subsequently improving the limit of detection from 88 copies per reaction to 4.5 copies per reaction, facilitated by a longer assay incubation. T…
author: Storms, Suzanna Michelle
language: eng
language: en
keywords: Whole Genome Sequencing, Influenza A Virus, Swine, Lamp Assay, Viral Transmission, Serology
date published: 2024-12
date modified: 2026-07-22T22:25:03Z
provider: University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

PropertyValue
property ID: Handle
value: https://hdl.handle.net/2142/127371