Fecal specimens

Diagnostic Solutions
for Fecal Specimens

Fecal antibodies, particularly IgA, can provide the means to measure mucosal immunity in animals of any age and, ideally, to predict mucosal sIgA post-farrowing. For routine surveillance of group-housed animals, oral fluids are preferable to serum because pen-based oral fluid samples provide improved detection over single-animal testing (Olsen et al., 2013; Rotolo et al., 2017). However, individually-housed animals have been a “blind spot” in pathogen surveillance because serum sampling requires too much time and/or places both personnel and animals at risk. Alternatively, fecal samples are highly accessible and can be collected quickly from individual animals with no risk to care takers or animals. Furthermore, feces contain ELISA-detectable antibodies against a variety of pathogens. Specifically, because of their persistence in milk at high titers, secretory IgA (sIgA) antibodies play a major role in conferring passive lactogenic protection against enteric pathogens in suckling neonates. The immunological process that causes the mother to produce sIgA in mammary secretions involves the “gut-mammary sIgA axis” (Chattha et al., 2015).

Innoceleris can help producers to assess the immune status (“immunity”) against enteric pathogens like porcine epidemic diarrhea virus (PEDV), and rotavirus.