Post weaning multisystemic wasting syndrome (PMWS) is an emerging disease of pigs, first recognised in 1996,caused presumably by the porcine circovirus type 2 (PCV 2). The disease is spreading rapidly in several European countries affected and is becoming a primary cause of economical loss. The main objectives of the project areL%(i) to obtain basis knowledge of the pathogenesis, epidemiology, and immunopathology of PCV infection and PWMS,
(ii) to develop tools for diagnosis of the infection,
(iii) to identify proper vaccines prototypes by using conventional and DNA-recombinant technology,
(iv) to evaluate the possible risk of PCV for humans, and
(v) to develop tools and criteria for assure quality and control of porcine reagent currently used in pig industry in respect to PCV. The design of prototype vaccines is a major milestone in the project.
Specific laboratorial techniques (isolation and growth of virus, in situ hybridization immunohistochemestry, immunoperoxidase monolayer assay, protein ELISA, PCR, Taqman, apoptosis test...) have been developed. Characterization of the natural PCV2 associated disease have been done by epidemiological, immunological, molecular biology and apoptosis studies. Moreover, a large epidemiological survey of risk factors for PMWS was carried out in 159 French and 62 Spanish (data analyses unfinished) farms with different production systems. Research focused on vaccine prototype against PCV infection and immunoprotection studies using these prototypes has prepared the way for future development in this field.