SWINOSTICS 36 Months meeting is planned for today, 6th of October! Due to the current COVID19 outbreak, the meeting will be held remotely. We will discuss SWINOSTICS results of the last six months and plans for the future!
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Inside the Swine Virus: Swine influenza (SI)
Influenza viruses are well known pathogens causing infections worldwide in a wide range of species. There are four types (A–D) of influenza viruses, but the most important ones – both in the human and veterinary medicine -belong to the A genus. The great „success” of these viruses depends on many factors, but one of the most important property of the virus is the ability to change its genome and subsequently its antigenic structure very rapidly. Two main factors contribute to the genetic change: (i) the relative high mutation rate of its genome that is observed in other RNA viruses as well (antigenic shift), and (ii) the reassortment of genomic segments causing even more rapid changes (antigenic drift). The latter can occur when a single cell is infected with multiple subtypes of viruses that can exchange their genome segment leading to the rise of so called “reassortant” variants. These strains can have genomic elements from birds, pigs, humans etc. Actually, most of the influenza viruses detected in pigs are such triple reassortants. Avian-like swine A(H1N1) influenza viruses of the subtypes A(H1N1), A(H3N2) and A(H1N2) are enzootic and widespread in most swine producing regions of Europe. The outbreaks nowadays however, are different from the seasonal flu we see every year in the human population. These viruses are endemic in most of the herds and along with other infectious (viruses and bacteria) and non-infectious factors (dust, poor ventilation, overcrowding etc.) can cause the so called porcine respiratory disease complex (PRDC). Rapid and reliable diagnosis of swine influenza in pigs can help mitigate the economic losses caused by PRDC.
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Inside the Swine Virus: Classical swine fever
Classical wine fever (CSF), so called as the ‘Hog cholera’ is an infectious and contagious disease of pigs and wild boars caused by the Pestivirus belonging to the Flaviviridae family.
The infection with CSFV may be transmitted by affected animals, contaminated products of swine origin when the disease was not diagnosed during life or post-mortem of pigs. The source of infection could be wild boar, which may transmit the virus directly by the contact with pigs in backyard farms or indirectly by contaminated hay, straw, corn, potatoes or green forage.
The incubation period is 5-20 days and depends largely on the virulence and amount of the virus, as well as the immunity of pigs. The clinical signs include a fever (over 41-42 C), gait instability, cyanosis of the skin and death after 1-2 days after observation of the clinical signs.
The chronic course is rather seldom and lasts several weeks. As the disease continues, emaciation, anemia and growth inhibition occur. In herds in which immunity acquired as a result of vaccination or natural infection with low virulence strain the disease course may be atypical. In general the mortality may reach 80-100% affecting largely piglets and weaners. In the course of low virulence the mortality reaches 30-40%. The last case of CSF in Poland was found in 1994. Poland is recognized as a country officially free of this disease by the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) from 2016.
There is passive and active CSF monitoring in Poland of susceptible animals disease. In wild boars, passive monitoring consists in examining all dead boars and in the voivodships bordering Russia, Belarus or Ukraine on the stairs, shot wild boars. Active monitoring: it consists of examining an appropriate number of samples from live pigs and wild boars shot in each pivot.
The current diagnosis methods include serological assays (ELISA), isolation of CSFV in cell cultures, as well as antibody cross-neutralization assay to differentiate CSFV from other Pestiviruses including Bovine viral diarrhoea virus (BVDV). Different modifications of PCR assays are used for rapid CSFV screening.
In the picture pig in acute CSF infection.
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Inside the Swine Virus: Porcine parvovirus (PPV)
PPV has been diagnosed for the first time in 1965 by German researcher dr Anton Mayr as the contamination of primary cell line used for isolation of classical swine fever virus (CSFV). The virus belongs to the Parvoviride family and Parvovirinae subfamily. There is only one serotype of PPV. The most important type of PPV is PPV1 causing reproducing failure among pregnant sows. In general, PPV1 is widely distributed in many countries of Europe. Other subtypes of PPV (2-7) have been identified in the absence of PPV1 or as a co-infection. The prevalence of PPV1 antibodies in pigs from many European countries reach from 70 to 100 percent. The PPV antibodies are passed to the offspring with the colostrum of sows and may prevent disease development but not protects against infection. The anti-PPV antibody titers may be detected in pigs up to 20 weeks of age. The vaccination using inactivated vaccines or modified live virus (MLV) vaccines of breeding females against PPV1 protects piglets and weaners against PPV1. The specific antibodies may be detected until the 13th week after vaccination. Many of PPV infections might have subclinical course what also complicates its diagnosis and eradication. The virus can be transmitted with faeces or other body fluids. The virus can persist at the contaminated environment or fomites up to few months presenting threat to other susceptible pigs. There are no specific clinical signs or lesions observed during PPV infection except stunting of fetuses. The clinical diagnosis of PPV is rather difficult because in differential diagnosis leptospirosis, porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS), toxoplasmosis or brucellosis should be excluded. The current laboratory diagnosis methods include immune-fluoresecence assay (IF) for detection of the viral antigen or serological tests (ELISA) using sera collected from pigs during reproduction failure then repeated after 2-4 weeks. The virus isolation could be also conducted in permissive cell lines ex. PK‐15,SK6, ST or STE. Since PPV has the haemagglutinating activity the haemagglutination assay or haemagglutination inhibition assay may be used for virus or antibody titration. The most recent method of PPV identification is polymerase chain reaction (PCR) or multiplex PCR for parallel identification of PPV and PCV2.
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The second Swinostics review meeting was remotely held!!
It was a very fruitful discussion!
Thank you to the European Commission and the Expert reviewers for their support and advice!
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