The technology can identify different strains of strep suis that can be infecting pigs in different barns of the same farm or even different parts of large barns.
“It will change the way that we understand the epidemiology of Streptococcus suis so we'll know if there are any differences between barns, within barns,” Dr. Costa said.
“We'll be able to control when there's a new introduction in a barn that could be associated with a flareup of Streptococcus suis disease and it will also influence the way we choose strains to be included in autogenous vaccines and, who knows, in a potential future a universal vaccine as well.”
The technology is known as MLST.
Dr. Costa is also an adjunct professor at Utrecht University in the Netherlands.
