Porcine Circovirus 2–Associated Disease in Eurasian Wild Boar

Abstract

Porcine circovirus 2 (PCV2) was first identified in high-health herds of domestic swine and was associated with a debilitating disease called postweaning multisystemic wasting syndrome (PMWS). Most subsequent studies have indicated that PCV2 infects only swine but there is little information on porcids other than improved breeds of domestic swine. Multisystemic disease was reported in a group of Eurasian wild boars raised under free-range conditions. Affected young pigs had pneumonia and enteritis and were cachectic. Porcine circovirus 2 was identified in affected tissue by immunohistochemistry and in situ hybridization, and a PCV2-like virus was isolated from pooled organs. The open reading frame (ORF2) of the isolated PCV2 had a 98.7% homology with the ORF2 of a reference PCV2 isolate. These diagnostic data indicate that PCV2 can infect and cause disease in Sus scrofa subspecies other than domestic swine.