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New rapid test to help stop the spread of the African swine fever virus
A NEW, highly antici- pated and rapid test for African swine fever, PenCheck, has demon- strated impressive re- sults in a clinical study.
Silver Lake Research Corporation makes and manufactures Pen- Check, the only low- cost rapid African swine fever test on the market with accuracy rates greater than 95 percent.
The test can be easily administered pen-side, with results in just 20 minutes, to help prevent the spread of the deadly virus.
African swine fever has killed tens of mil- lions of pigs across
Asia and Europe, with an enormous and costly impact on the global meat market.
Once the virus started to spread, researchers, scientists and devel- opers at Silver Lake Research Corporation went to work to develop an easy-to-use test.
Sales and Business Development vice president Erik Serrao said, “It is remarkable to put together a rapid test like PenCheck so quickly; in fact, it is almost unheard of.”
“It can help save mil- lions of pigs around the world.
“We wanted to make it as easy as possible
to test and remove any infected animals to pre- vent further damage.”
Dr Juergen Richt, DVM, PhD at Kansas State University, con- ducted an independ- ent clinical validation study to determine the accuracy of PenCheck.
The sensitivity was 95.5 percent, with a specificity of 99.3 per- cent.
In the sensitivity tests, it correctly identified 21 out of 22 pigs with moderate to severe symptoms of African swine fever.
In the specificity tests, PenCheck was found to be very dependable.
In 144 pigs with no
prior symptoms, it cor- rectly determined 143 pigs did not carry the virus.
The study concluded:
• In symptomatic ani- mals, a positive test re- sult is a highly reliable indicator of African swine fever;
• In animals with moderate to severe symptoms, PenCheck can be used to detect African swine fever with high sensitivity; and
•Itmaybeusedasthe foundation for an ef- fective and inexpensive monitoring program for swine populations, concentrating on early detection of African
swine fever in sympto- matic animals.
A manuscript with the details of the clinical study is in preparation.
Needing just a drop of blood from the pig along with a few drops of water, PenCheck was designed with a sim- ple protocol, such that screening may be ac- complished confidently in any environment.
PenCheck kits are now available at $US250 and each kit contains 50 tests.
For more information on PenCheck, visit pen checktest.com or email info@penchecktest. com
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Keep pork products away from pigs
WITH further detection of African swine fever in Greece, and more closely in Indonesia, Queens- landers are urged to be aware of this biosecurity threat and informed on reducing the risk of it be- ing introduced.
Minister for Agricultur- al Industry Development and Fisheries Mark Furn- er said African swine fe- ver could potentially wipe out the state’s valuable pork industry, impacting the economy and jobs.
“The biggest threat is il- legal importation of pork products via incoming passenger movements and mail, with these products being eaten by pigs,” he said.
“An awareness cam- paign, which started re- cently, is educating com- munity members – par- ticularly those in contact with pigs – about the significant African swine fever threat.
“It only takes one per- son bringing pork or pork products into Australia il- legally and those products being fed to pigs.”
The community needs to know people food is not pig food, and is able to identify the signs and symptoms of African
swine fever and how to report it.
“While people can’t be infected with African swine fever, actions such as feeding pigs ham and cheese rolls or Caesar sal- ads can have detrimental effect on our pork indus- try,” Minister Furner said.
“Prevention is the key, so we really need every- body to understand the risk and that’s why we’re running this education campaign.
“There is no treatment or vaccine for African swine fever, so if it gets in it will be very hard for us to eradicate the disease.
“In its most severe form, up to 100 percent of pigs may be affected and die.
“It is estimated that up to a quarter of the world’s pigs have been lost as a result of African swine fever during the current global outbreak.”
If you keep pigs, you must be registered as a biosecurity entity.
Visit qld.gov.au/Biose curityRegistration to learn more.
Further information is available at qld.gov.au/ AfricanSwineFever or by contacting the Depart- ment of Agriculture and Fisheries on 13 25 23.
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Australian Pork Newspaper, March 2020 – Page 7