title: Susceptibility of calves to porcine circovirus-2 (PCV2).
abstract: Circoviruses are known to infect pigs and birds and cause severe diseases with various clinical signs. Porcine circovirus-2 (PCV2), associated with severe economic losses, was detected in rodents, mosquitoes, cattle, and in calves affected with bovine neonatal pancytopenia (BNP). However, molecular and serological investigations on circovirus infections in cattle revealed inconsistent results. The aim of the study was to investigate the susceptibility and immune response of calves to experimental PCV2 inoculation. Animals were either intravenously inoculated with tissue-culture grown PCV2, with bone marrow from PCV2 positive and negative calves or immunized with a commercial inactivated PCV2 vaccine. The results showed that the animals inoculated with tissue-culture grown PCV2 and with PCV2 positive bone marrow displayed clinical signs including lymph node swelling, reddening of oral and ocular mucosa, and diarrhoea 7-18 days post inoculation (p.i.). PCV2-specific antibodies were detected in the tissue-culture grown PCV2-infected animals and in the PCV2-immunized animals from day 11 and 7 p.i. onwards, respectively, but were absent in both bone marrow inoculated groups. PCV2 was detected by real-time quantitative PCR only in blood samples of the tissue-culture grown PCV2-infected animals and in various tissues (e.g. spleen, lymph nodes, thymus), with high copy numbers in blood between day 4 (5.16log10 genomic copy number/ml) and 46 (5.33log10 genomic copy number/ml) p.i. In conclusion, the seroconversion and the detection of PCV2 in lymphoid tissues for more than five weeks p.i. revealed that host susceptibility of PCV2 is not solely restricted to pigs.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Virology, Center for Infectious Diseases, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Leipzig, An den Tierkliniken 29, 04103 Leipzig, Germany. Electronic address: halami@vetmed.uni-leipzig.de.
authors.forename: Mohammad Y
authors.initials: MY
authors.lastname: Halami
authors.affiliation: Tierarztpraxis Zettlitz, Straße der Jugend 68, 09306 Zettlitz OT Methau, Germany.
authors.forename: Markus
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Freick
authors.affiliation: Institute of Virology, Center for Infectious Diseases, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Leipzig, An den Tierkliniken 29, 04103 Leipzig, Germany.
authors.forename: Awad A
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Shehata
authors.affiliation: Institute of Virology, Center for Infectious Diseases, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Leipzig, An den Tierkliniken 29, 04103 Leipzig, Germany.
authors.forename: Hermann
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Müller
authors.affiliation: Institute of Virology, Center for Infectious Diseases, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Leipzig, An den Tierkliniken 29, 04103 Leipzig, Germany.
authors.forename: Thomas W
authors.initials: TW
authors.lastname: Vahlenkamp
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000914:Antibodies, Viral / Q000097:blood*; D001853:Bone Marrow / Q000473:pathology / Q000821:virology; D002417:Cattle; D002418:Cattle Diseases / Q000276:immunology* / Q000473:pathology / Q000517:prevention & control / Q000821:virology; D018173:Circoviridae Infections / Q000276:immunology* / Q000473:pathology / Q000517:prevention & control / Q000662:veterinary*; D017925:Circovirus / Q000276:immunology* / Q000472:pathogenicity; D004198:Disease Susceptibility; D008198:Lymph Nodes / Q000473:pathology / Q000821:virology; D008297:Male; D013154:Spleen / Q000473:pathology / Q000821:virology; D014611:Vaccination; D014765:Viral Vaccines / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000276:immunology
chemical_list: D000914:Antibodies, Viral; D014765:Viral Vaccines
keywords: Bovine neonatal pancytopenia (BNP); Calves; Porcine circovirus-2 (PCV2)