Vascular lesions and pneumonia in a pig fetus infected by porcine circovirus type 2

Abstract

Porcine circovirus type 2 (PCV2) associated reproductive disease was diagnosed in a herd containing only gilts. A single case of abortion occurred and no other disorder was evident in the herd. PCV2 antigen and/or DNA were detected in two aborted fetuses. One of the fetuses, revealing both PCV2 DNA and antigen, presented multinucleated giant cells, severe vascular lesions (intramural oedema, fibrinoid necrosis, mild lympho-histiocytic vasculitis, fibrin thrombi) and mild non-suppurative inflammation in the lungs. Other abortifacient infections were not found. This is the only report of PCV2-induced abortion in Hungary since 1999, when PCV2-associated disease was first discovered in the country.

Association of the severity of lung lesions with carcass and meat quality in slaughter pigs

“…Over the last few decades, lung lesions have represented one of the most important health and welfare issues in intensive pig farming worldwide (Flesja and Ulvesaeter, 1980;Ujvári et al, 2015;Palzer et al, 2015;Sárközi et al, 2015;Čobanović et al, 2016a;Lukač et al, 2016;Polaček and Aleksić-Kovačević, 2016). They cause significant financial losses to the pig industry, arising from reduced growth rate and feed conversion, high morbidity and mortality, increased medication costs, condemnation of offal and carcasses, and lower carcass quality (Ostanello et al, 2007;Becskei et al, 2010;Fraile et al, 2010;Toplak et al, 2012;Čobanović et al, 2015;Štukelj et al, 2015;Szeredi et al, 2015). In most cases, respiratory diseases occur in subclinical form and, therefore, a clinical examination on the farm of origin cannot be regarded as an efficient method for their assessment (Ostanello et al, 2007).…”