PERP-ID - Point of care diagnostic for lung pathogens of pigs

肺部感染是造成全球养猪业严重痛苦、死亡和经济损失的原因。感染是由细菌、病毒或两者的组合引起的。肺部感染的控制是通过使用良好的农场实践（例如避免过度拥挤），抗生素和/或疫苗。然而，抗微生物剂耐药性是一个问题，并且缺乏针对大多数病原体的有效疫苗，因此，猪肺感染是该行业的重大负担。为了有效控制，识别引起猪肺感染的病原体至关重要，并依赖于诊断测试。然而，目前的测试是缓慢的-它可能需要很多天才能从实验室得到结果-并且需要进行许多测试，每种细菌或病毒一次。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，我们建议开发一种测试，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-所谓的即时检测。PorcinE呼吸道病原体识别（PERP-ID）设备将被设计用于识别猪肺的五种细菌和三种主要病毒病原体，并将基于伦敦帝国理工学院开发的电子系统，该系统可以快速检测特定DNA分子的存在。结果可以立即从农场通过智能手机发送到本地和/或全球位置，从而能够在农场采取快速补救措施，例如给予适当的抗生素。一旦开发出来，我们将分析临床样本，并将从PERP-ID获得的结果与目前使用的诊断测试结果进行比较。PERP-ID的成功开发将使由细菌和病毒引起的猪肺病的诊断更加快速和便宜，并导致全球养猪业的痛苦，死亡，抗生素使用和经济损失大幅减少。

Lung infections are responsible for substantial suffering, deaths, and economic loss in the 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 propose to develop one test that can rapidly and cheaply detect major bacterial and viral lung pathogens of pigs,and can be used at the farm - a so-called a point of care test. The PorcinE Respiratory Pathogen-IDentification (PERP-ID) device will be designed to identify the five bacterial and three major viral pathogens of pig lungs, and will be based on an electronic system developed at Imperial College London 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. Once developed, we will analyse clinical samples and compare the results obtained from PERP-ID with those from currently used diagnostic tests. The successful development of PERP-ID will allow more 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 worldwide pig industry.