BI satellite symposium highlighted PCV2 history
Animal health company Boehringer Ingelheim zoomed in on 15 years of PCV2 during the 6th International Symposium on Emerging and Re-emerging Pig Diseases, in Barcelona, Spain, held 12-15 June.
Prof John Harding, University of Saskatchewan, Canada, acted as a moderator as well as speaker for the symposium.
It was 15 years since the name PMWS was first proposed by Canadian investigators Ted Clark and John Harding for the novel wasting disease of growing pigs that they were observing in herds in Western Canada.
October 1994 supplied a key landmark when the University of Saskatchewan began to investigate unusual cases of wasting and jaundice in piglets from farms in Western Canada. This was followed in 1997 with the breakthrough by scientists in Northern Ireland and Canada that the virus involved was a novel type of the porcine circovirus.
Development
Fifteen years would be an extremely short time in the development of most pig diseases, so it is all the more remarkable that piglet vaccination against PCV2 has already been developed and has become such a global success story in controlling the economically damaging range of health problems associated with the virus.
The first vaccines did not appear until 2004, yet today PCV2 vaccination is routinely used in all leading pig markets with up to 90% of pigs vaccinated against the disease. This has posed questions for the future which were addressed by the symposium speakers:
Prof Tanja Opriessnig, Iowa State University zoomed in on the ‘Impact of PCV2 on breeding herds’, Prof Michael P. Murtaugh, University of Minnesota, addressed the question ‘Is PCV2 eradication possible?’ and Prof Joaquim Segales, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Spain, spoke about the question ‘Beyond PCV2: What’s next?’
Best examples
The PCV2 virus has provided one of the best examples so far of the devastating effects of an emerging virus on the global pig population. Vaccination now helps in achieving effective control of PCVD.
In conclusion of the satellite symposium, Prof Harding added, it will not be the last disease agent to emerge and to assault the pig industry. Most probably, the advance elements of the next attack are already circulating in pigs today.
Related websites:
• 6th International Symposium on Emerging and Re-emerging pig diseases
• Boehringer Ingelheim
Join 18,000+ subscribers
Subscribe to our newsletter to stay updated about all the need-to-know content in the pigsector, three times a week.
