Sample Collection and Storage Impacts Accuracy of Tongue Tip Fluid Diagnostics

Research conducted by the University of Minnesota has shown sample collection, processing and storage significantly impacts the diagnostic sensitivity of tongue tip fluids.Researchers with the University of Minnesota, with support from the Swine Health Information Center, have completed a study to determine how to best utilize Tongue tip sampling to optimize the sensitivity of virus detection.

SHIC Associate Director Dr. Lisa Becton says tongue tip sampling is relatively labor efficient but how samples are collected can impact diagnostic accuracy.

Quote-Dr. Lisa Becton-Swine Health Information Center:

The effectiveness can be affected by different sampling and handling methodologies.We know, when collecting tissue samples, if you test individually that can be very accurate on an individual pig but it can become costly when you have to sample multiple pigs versus if you do what's called a pooled sampling and combine different pig samples together for one test.

Sometimes the diagnostic sensitivity is a little bit reduced but it can be a more cost-effective method to detect disease.The other part that we always assess when any submission is done from tissues is how quickly we can get those tissues pooled or chilled to be able to preserve the integrity of the virus or bacteria and make for optimum detection of disease.

It was determined that tongue tip fluids can accurately detect PRRS viruses under various conditions, whether that be pooling and/or storage.However, pooling can have less diagnostic accuracy but it also allows the ability to survey across more animals at a less potential cost.It was also determined that freezing of samples as soon as possible after collection helps provide a better viral detection versus refrigeration however both really should as soon as possible after sample collection to be able to get the best diagnostic results.