CLINICAL AND VIROLOGICAL OUTCOME OF PCV2 INFECTIONS IN LATE-TERM FETUSES AND NEWBORN PIGLETS

摘要

Porcine circovirus 1 (PCV2) is associated with many disease syndromes in pigs, primarily post-weaning multisystemic wasting syndrome. Recently, the potential of PCV2 as a fetal pathogen has been raised following field reports describing the isolationof the virus in dead fetuses. The ability of PCV2 to replicate and cause lesions in fetuses has been confirmed following direct intra-fetal inoculations at different gestational ages. Depending on the age of the fetus at inoculation, infection can lead to fetal death and mummification at terra as has been observed in fetuses inoculated at 57 and 75 days of gestation. Fetuses infected at 92 days, however, are without gross abnormalities but are positive for virus and antibodies at the end of pregnancy. We were, therefore, interested to examine the fate of these late-term fetuses post-natally. The aims of the present study were to determine the post-natal clinical, virological and serological outcome of PCV2 infection in late-term fetuses and to compareit with that in 1 -day old PCV2-infected gnotobiotic piglets.