Slowing Emerging Infectious Diseases

Problem

How can we intervene more quickly before animal diseases spread?

• A swine bacterial pathogen, Streptococcus equi subspecies zooepidemicus or "Strep zoo," is difficult to detect with conventional methods because virulent strains show only minor genetic differences from bacteria commonly found in healthy pigs and other animals.
• Outbreaks that go undiagnosed quickly have the potential to spread and cause devastating impacts on animal agriculture.

Findings

Researchers used cutting-edge tools, including next-generation sequencing, to study bacterial isolates from a lethal Pennsylvania Strep zoo outbreak in pigs.

• The team developed a new polymerase chain reaction (PCR) diagnostic assay that distinguished between avirulent strains of Strep zoo and other pathogens associated with swine respiratory disease and the virulent strain.

Impact

This novel assay, which can return results in less than four hours, provides a practical solution to the previously unsolved problem of diagnosing this severe disease in swine herds.

• The reliability of this diagnostic tool means that it can be used to investigate the natural infection of other susceptible animals and to prevent zoonotic risk.

Research Credit

Team

• Suresh V. Kuchipudi, Meera Surendran Nair, Michele Yon, Abhinay Gontu, Ruth H. Nissly, Rhiannon Barry, Denver Greenawalt, Traci Pierre, Lingling Li, Nagaraja Thirumalapura, Deepanker Tewari, Bhushan Jayarao

Participating Department

• Veterinary and Biomedical Sciences

Partner

• Pennsylvania Veterinary Laboratory

Competitive Funding

• Pennsylvania Soybean Board
• Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture; USDA NIFA

Federal and State Appropriations

• USDA NIFA Hatch Project PEN04748, Accession #1023391

Emerging Discoveries

Tool can provide swine producers with early diagnosis of often-fatal 'Strep zoo'

March 17, 2021

A team led by researchers in Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences has developed a diagnostic test that can identify virulent forms of the swine bacterial pathogen Streptococcus equi subspecies zooepidemicus — often referred to as "Strep zoo" — which can cause severe illness and death in pigs, other animals and rarely people.

Published Research

A Novel Real-Time PCR Assay for the Rapid Detection of Virulent Streptococcus equi Subspecies zooepidemicus—An Emerging Pathogen of Swine.

• Kuchipudi, S. V., Surendran Nair, M., Yon, M., Gontu, A., Nissly, R. H., Barry, R., Greenawalt, D., Pierre, T., Li, L., Thirumalapura, N., Tewari, D., & Jayarao, B. (2021). A Novel Real-Time PCR Assay for the Rapid Detection of Virulent Streptococcus equi Subspecies zooepidemicus—An Emerging Pathogen of Swine. Frontiers in Veterinary Science, 8, [604675]. https://doi.org/10.3389/fvets.2021.604675