Clinical laboratory diagnosis in swine practice

Necessity and facilities of clinical laboratory diagnostics in veterinary swine practice are discussed. The selection of suitable tests with regard to diagnostic relevance and reliability is pointed out. Typical test features (sensitivity and specificity) as well as disease dependent parameters (prevalence, positive or negative predictive value) are presented and illustrated by means of urinary tract infections in sows. It is concluded that a specific selection of tests and probands closely related to diagnosis is more successful than the use of unspecific multi-analysing procedures (profile tests).