Detection and Genetic Characterization of Porcine Circovirus 2 Isolates From the First Cases of Postweaning Multisystemic and Wasting Syndrome in Wild Boars in Greece

Abstract

ABSTRACT:In 2002, postweaning multisystemic wasting syndrome (PMWS) was diagnosed in a European female wild boar (Sus scrofa), based on the detection of porcine circovirus 2 (PCV2) DNA in various organs, including the uterus, and on histopathologic lesions. This is the first detection of PCV2 DNA in the uterus of a wild boar. Three years later (2005), a wild boar ,6-8 mo of age was found moribund. It presented wasting and dyspnea and finally died. PCV2 DNA was detected in tissue samples, and histopathologic lesions consistent with PMWS were observed. Both wild boars were from neighboring hunting areas in central Greece. Two PCV2 strains from the wild boars were genetically characterized and compared to other reported PCV2 sequences from wild boars and domestic pigs. The PCV-2 sequences from the wild boars in this study were closely related to each other and were grouped with two isolates from wild boars from Hungary. The phylogenetic analysis revealed that the virus might be transmitted between hunting areas. In addition, PCV2 may spread from domestic pigs to wild boars and vice versa.

Prevalence of Infection and Genetic Diversity of Porcine Circovirus Type 2 (Pcv2) in Wild Boar (Sus Scrofa) in Poland

“…In Hungary, some isolates had the closest relationship with a Canadian isolate, and the others were similar to a German isolate. In Greece, Sofia et al (2008) showed that the two Greek strains from wild boars were closely related to each other and were clustered with two isolates from wild boars from Hungary. Csagola et al (2006) and Sofia et al (2008) postulated that observed genetic similarities suggest an epidemiologic link between wild boar and domestic pig populations.…”

“…In Greece, Sofia et al (2008) showed that the two Greek strains from wild boars were closely related to each other and were clustered with two isolates from wild boars from Hungary. Csagola et al (2006) and Sofia et al (2008) postulated that observed genetic similarities suggest an epidemiologic link between wild boar and domestic pig populations. However, in recent studies, no direct evidence was found for PCV2 transmission between domestic pig and wild boar (Reiner et al 2010).…”

“…Cases of PMWS have been identified in several countries and included farmed wild boars in North America (Ellis et al, 2003) and Brazil (Correa et al, 2006) and free-living animals in Croatia and Greece (Lipej et al, 2007;Sofia et al, 2008).…”

“…In wild boar populations prevalence of antibody to PCV2 was 50% in Spain (Vicente et al, 2004;Ruiz-Fons et al, 2006) and 43% in the Czech Republic (Sedlak et al, 2008) and PMWS in wild boars has been described in many countries including the USA (Ellis et al, 2003), Brazil (Correa et al, 2006), Germany (Schulze et al, 2004), Croatia (Lipej et al, 2007), Greece (Sofia et al, 2008), and Italy (Petrini et al, 2009). We estimated the prevalence of PCV2 infection in Polish wild boars based on real-time PCR and evaluated phylogenetic relationship of PCV2 from wild boars and domestic pigs in Poland.…”

Detection of Genetic characterization of Porcine circovirus 2 (PCV2) in Brazilian wildlife boars

“…PCV2 infection was detected in about 20% of Hungarian wild boars using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) (7). In Greece, there was a report stating that wild boars with wasting and dyspnea had died and PCV2 was detected in tissue samples and the histopathologic lesions were consistent with PMWS described in domestic pigs (10). In Brazil, a high (54.09% to 89.53%) prevalence was reported (2) The samples of the two animals were positive for PCV2 and the complete PCV2 genome was sequenced from the two samples using four pairs of primers described by An (1).…”