Abstract
Bovine viral diarrhea virus (BVDV) is an important pathogen belonging to the Pestivirus genus, Flaviviridae family, which comprises viral species that causes an economic impact in animal production. Cattle are the natural host of BVDV and the main source of infection for pigs and other animal species. Due to its antigenic and genetic similarity with other important pestiviruses such as Classical Swine Fever Virus (CSFV), several studies have been conducted to elucidate the real role of this virus in piglets, sows, and boars, not only in the field but also in experimental infections, which will be discussed in this paper. Although BVDV does not pose a threat to pigs as it does to ruminants, the occurrence of clinical signs is variable and may depend on several factors. Therefore, this study presents a survey of data on BVDV infection in pigs, comparing information on prevalence in different countries and the results of experimental infections to understand this type of infection in pigs better.
Highlights
Bovine viral diarrhea virus (BVDV) is an important pathogen belonging to the Pestivirus genus, Flaviviridae family, which comprises viral species that causes an economic impact in animal production
As the presence of anti-BVDV antibodies in swine serum can lead to false-positive results in serological tests for the diagnosis of Classical Swine Fever Virus (CSFV), the positive samples from both studies were sent for anti-CSFV antibodies detection, and were both negative
Dpi: days post-inoculation; cp: cytopathic; ncp: non-cytopathic.; NA = not applicable. These studies proved that BVDV can infect weaned piglets, which shed the virus by the nasal route, presented clinical signs, and seroconverted
Summary
Bovine viral diarrhea (BVD) is an infection caused by the bovine viral diarrhea virus (BVDV), belonging to the genus Pestivirus, family Flaviviridae, with single-stranded positive polarity RNA [1]. China [9], the Netherlands [10], Brazil [11–13], Austria [14], Germany [15], Norway [16], Ireland [17], Denmark [18] and others These data were found in domestic pigs and in wild boars [19], which raise concerns about risk factors involved in BVDV infection, the clinical form of the disease, and the existence of accurate diagnostic tests. Even though BVDV infections in pigs are not as problematic as Classical Swine Fever Virus (CSFV) infections, it is believed that distinguishing these two diseases could be difficult due to the similar clinical signs when considering low pathogenicity strains [22]. Several recent studies with experimental infection did not report the presence of clinical signs of infection [25–34] This may occur due to an inadequate level of viremia or a low virulence strain, biotype of the virus, host adaptation and/or route of inoculation [31–35]. Several studies that examine data collection in the field, as well as experimental infection with BVDV, have been conducted, and the results that contrast with the former data in the literature will be further discussed
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