The announcement was made yesterday during a dedicated symposium at the 6th International Symposium on Emerging and Re-emerging Pig Diseases that is currently taking place in Barcelona (Spain).

ELISA test at ISPAH

The BacuCheck ELISA test is an easy-to-use and value-added herd monitoring service for pig farmers and traders and was developed to be able to discriminate PCV2-vaccinated piglets from non-vaccinated animals. The test is also able to verify if the animals have received the full vaccine dose. The test detects antibodies against baculomarkers which are used in the production of the structural capsid protein ORF2 component of PORCILIS PCV, and are thus able to differentiate between the field virus and the vaccine antigen. By using this laboratory test, piglet producers and traders are able to certify PCV2-vaccinated piglets as an additional quality stamp, thereby facilitating the building of trustful business relationships with feeding pig companies.

Alex Eggen, DVM and Global Technical Director of the Swine Business Unit at Intervet/Schering-Plough Animal health explains the scope and interpretation of the test: "Insufficient dosing will provide test results that indicate that pigs are not or not properly vaccinated with a full dose of PORCILIS PCV. It must be emphasized that the BacuCheck test results are valid for PORCILIS PCV only. As the system was not tested on samples originating from pigs vaccinated with other PCV2 vaccines, BacuCheck can not reliably be used to control the vaccination status of animals vaccinated with vaccines other than Porcilis PCV."

BacuCheck was developed by veterinary diagnostic laboratory Synlab vet (Leipzig, Germany) in collaboration with Intervet/Schering-Plough Animal Health.

The test has already been rolled out in Germany, whereas launches are imminent in the Netherlands, Denmark, Belgium, Austria, Italy and Spain. Other markets will see a rollout before year-end 2011.

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