PIG HERDS HAVING A SINGLE REACTOR TO SERUM ANTIBODY TESTS TO AUJESZKYS DISEASE VIRUS

The introduction of Aujeszky's disease virus into a herd of pigs usually results in a rapid spread of the virus and a high percentage of pigs become seropositive. However, herd monitoring for the virus occasionally reveals a single seropositive breeding pig, referred to as a single reactor. The seropositive status of single reactors may be due to previous vaccination against Aujeszky's disease, or to exposure to a field strain of the virus, or to a false positive reaction in the serological assay. During a monitoring programme in Minnesota, 30 pig herds with single serological reactors were detected. Twenty-seven of these single reactors from 19 herds were segregated from their herds and immunosuppressed with dexamethasone. Aujeszky's disease virus was isolated from four of the 27 pigs. Three of the four herds subsequently had outbreaks of Aujeszky's disease, suggesting that some single reactors were infected with Aujeszky's disease virus and had the potential to spread the virus within and between herds.