%0 Journal Article
%T Serum protein profiles as potential biomarkers for infectious disease status in pigs
%A Miriam GJ Koene
%A Han A Mulder
%A Norbert Stockhofe-Zurwieden
%A Leo Kruijt
%A Mari A Smits
%J BMC Veterinary Research
%D 2012
%I BioMed Central
%R 10.1186/1746-6148-8-32
%X Protein profiles were generated by SELDI-TOF mass spectrometry in combination with the Proteominer£¿ technology to enrich for low-abundance proteins. Based on these protein profiles, the experimentally infected pigs could be classified according to their infectious disease status. Before the onset of clinical signs 88% of the infected animals could be classified correctly, after the onset of clinical sigs 93%. The sensitivity of the classification appeared to be high. The protein profiles could distinguish between separate infection models, although specificity was moderate to low. Classification of PCV2/PRRSV infected animals was superior compared to PCV2/PPV infected animals. Limiting the number of proteins in the profiles (ranging from 568 to 10) had only minor effects on the classification performance.This study shows that serum protein profiles have potential for detection and identification of viral infections in pigs before clinical signs of the disease become visible.In present livestock husbandry with increasing requirements for higher health and welfare issues but also tight economical margins, there is a need for tools allowing the early warning for disease. Ideally, easy to perform tools should be available that warn farmers and veterinarians that animals are infected, preferably before the onset of clinical signs. Regular use of such tools may diminish growth retardations and production losses. However, tests for early diagnosis can only be developed when animal-associated "biomarkers" exist that differ between uninfected healthy animals and infected, but not yet diseased, animals. The search for such biomarkers can be performed by two different approaches, either focusing on differences in predefined "candidate" markers, or by comparative fingerprint analysis of "all" components present in a biological sample.In human medicine extensive research has been performed aiming at the discovery of early biomarkers for different kinds of disease, including canc
%U http://www.biomedcentral.com/1746-6148/8/32