Sampling of adult boars during early infection using a new serum collection technique for PRRS PCR testing prior to semen collection

In the study, serum had a higher quantity of virus than the blood swab samples as expected. The blood swab method can be done on boars each collection day, thus is user-friendly when compared with snaring and collection of blood from the neck. The blood swab samples detected virus earlier and had more virus quantity than semen or mouth swab samples, so finding virus in pooled samples would be much more likely. This study verifies results of prior work by this author which suggested that semen PCR was not effective at detecting virus from boars during the first 6 days after infection. Blood swab sampling should replace semen sampling for boar studs.