THE USE OF POLYMERASE CHAIN REACTION (PCR) AND SEROLOGY (ELISA) TO DETERMINE MYCOPLASMA HYOPNEUMONIAE INFECTION IN GERMAN PIG HERDS

摘要

Mycoplasma hyopneumonia is the causative agent of enzootic penumonia (EP) and plays an important role in the development of the porcine respiratory disease complex. Whereas clinical symptoms are known to appear in the end of the grower and early finisher period, only few information is available on the time of infection. To study the development of M. hyo. infections during pig production 12 farrow to finisher herds were selected for M. hyopneumonia profiling. The herds were 90 to 800 sows and 250 to 1300 finishers or gilts in size. The herds were sampled for sera and deep nasal swabs according to the sceme shown in Table 1.