PERP-ID: On farm point-of-care diagnostic for the porcine respiratory disease complex

在英国和全世界的养猪业，肺部感染是造成巨大痛苦、死亡和经济损失的原因。感染是由细菌、病毒或两者的结合引起的。控制肺部感染的方法是使用良好的农场做法（例如，避免过度拥挤）、抗生素和/或疫苗。然而，抗菌素耐药性是一个问题，而且缺乏针对大多数病原体的有效疫苗，因此，猪肺部感染对该行业构成了沉重负担。为了有效控制，确定引起猪肺感染的病原体至关重要，并依赖于诊断检测。然而，目前的检测速度很慢——从实验室得到结果可能需要很多天——而且需要进行很多次检测，每种细菌或病毒都要进行一次检测。应兽医、猪肉生产商、农场管理者和政策制定者的广泛反馈要求，我们一直在开发一种测试方法，可以快速、廉价地检测猪的主要细菌和病毒性肺部病原体，并可在农场使用，即所谓的护理点测试。猪呼吸道病原体鉴定（PERP-ID）装置设计用于鉴定猪的五种细菌和三种主要病毒性肺病原体，基于ProtonDx开发的电子系统，可以快速检测特定DNA分子的存在。结果可以通过智能手机立即从农场发送到当地和/或全球各地，从而在农场采取快速补救行动，例如给予适当的抗生素。最初，我们将利用我们收集的具有良好特征的临床样本来优化PERP-ID，然后在现场用新样本进行测试，将其性能与当前使用的诊断测试进行比较。PERP-ID的一次成功的现场试验将导致对由细菌和病毒引起的猪肺部疾病的快速和更便宜的诊断，并导致英国和全世界养猪业的痛苦、死亡、抗生素使用和经济损失的大幅减少。

Lung infections are responsible for substantial suffering, deaths, and economic loss in the UK and worldwide pig industry. Infections are caused by bacteria, viruses or a combination of the two. Control of lung infections is by the use of good farm practices (e.g., avoiding overcrowding), antibiotics and/or vaccines. However, antimicrobial resistance is a problem and there is a lack of effective vaccines for most pathogens, hence, pig lung infections are a substantial burden to the industry. For effective control, identifying the pathogens causing pig lung infections is crucial and dependent on diagnostic tests. However, current tests are slow - it can take many days to get the results back from the laboratory - and many tests are required, one for each bacterium or virus. At the request of extensive feedback from veterinarians, pork producers, farm managers, and policy makers, we have been developing a test that can rapidly and cheaply detect major bacterial and viral lung pathogens of pigs that can be used at the farm - a so-called a point of care test. The PorcinE Respiratory Pathogen-Identification (PERP-ID) device is designed to identify the five bacterial and three major viral lung pathogens of pigs, and is based on an electronic system developed by ProtonDx that can rapidly detect the presence of specific DNA molecules. Results can immediately be sent from the farm to local and/or global locations via a smart phone enabling fast remedial action at the farm, e.g., giving appropriate antibiotics. Initially, we will optimise PERP-ID with our collection of well characterised clinical samples, and then test it in the field with new samples by comparing its performance against currently used diagnostic tests. A successful field trial of PERP-ID will result in rapid and cheaper diagnosis of lung disease in pigs caused by bacteria and viruses, and result in a substantial reduction in suffering, death, antibiotic use, and economic losses in the UK and worldwide pig industry.