First evidence of porcine circovirus 2 (PCV2) in Slovakia.

Circoviruses belong to the family of small DNA viruses, which infect a number of animal species. The most important circovirus in swine is porcine circovirus type 2 (PCV2).The most frequent clinical form of circovirus infection in swine is the post-weaning multisystemic wasting syndrome (PMWS). Because Slovakia is one of the countries with unknown prevalence of PMWS, we focused on the detection of Slovak PCV2 isolates from pics with PMWS-like symptoms (clinical symptoms, pathology) based on generally accepted scientific criteria (biological and molecular-genetic methods). The affected weaned pigs showed general symptoms characteristic for PMWS with pathological-anatomical changes particularly in lungs, lymph nodes and kidneys. Immunohistochemistry and PCR allowed us to prove PCV2 in cryosections of organs from infected animals. Immunoperoxidase test (IPMA) was used to confirm PCV2 in cells of cell culture PK-15 with the highest titre of the virus found in the lymph node tissue. Sequencing proved the specifity of PCR products. BLAST analysis indicated that nucleotide sequences of PCV2 amplified fragments were the most similar to the Austrian isolate of PCV2. This paper presents the first detection and isolation of PCV2 in Slovakia, which was confirmed by laboratory methods at antigenic and genetic level.