A novel quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction method for detecting toxigenic Pasteurella multocida in nasal swabs from swine

BACKGROUND: Progressive atrophic rhinitis (PAR) in pigs is caused by toxigenic Pasteurella multocida. In Switzerland, PAR is monitored by selective culture of nasal swabs and subsequent polymerase chain reaction (PCR) screening of bacterial colonies for the P. multocida toxA gene. A panel of 203 nasal swabs from a recent PAR outbreak were used to evaluate a novel quantitative real-time PCR for toxigenic P. multocida in porcine nasal swabs. RESULTS: In comparison to the conventional PCR with a limit of detection of 100 genome equivalents per PCR reaction, the real-time PCR had a limit of detection of 10 genome equivalents. The real-time PCR detected toxA-positive P. multocida in 101 samples (49.8%), whereas the conventional PCR was less sensitive with 90 toxA-positive samples (44.3%). In comparison to the real-time PCR, 5.4% of the toxA-positive samples revealed unevaluable results by conventional PCR. CONCLUSIONS: The approach of culture-coupled toxA PCR for the monitoring of PAR in pigs is substantially improved by a novel quantitative real-time PCR. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s13028-016-0267-7) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.