<i>Torque teno sus virus 1</i> and <i>2</i> viral loads in faeces of porcine circovirus 2-positive pigs

de Castro, Alessandra M. M. G.; Baldin, Cintia M.; Favero, Cintia M.; Gerber, Priscilla F.; Cipullo, Rafael I.; Richtzenhain, Leonardo J.

doi:10.2754/avb201584020091

Acta Veterinaria > Archive > 2015, Vol. 84 > Issue 2 > Torque teno sus virus 1 and…

Acta Vet. Brno 2015, 84: 91-95

https://doi.org/10.2754/avb201584020091

Torque teno sus virus 1 and 2 viral loads in faeces of porcine circovirus 2-positive pigs

Alessandra M. M. G. de Castro^1,2, Cintia M. Baldin², Cintia M. Favero², Priscilla F. Gerber³, Rafael I. Cipullo², Leonardo J. Richtzenhain²

¹Complexo Educacional Faculdade Metropolitanas Unidas, Faculdade de Medicina Veterinária, São Paulo, Brazil
²University of São Paulo, College of Veterinary Medicine, Department of Preventive Veterinary Medicine and Animal Health, São Paulo, Brazil
³Federal University of Minas Gerais, Department of Pathology, Minas Gerais, Brazil

Received February 10, 2014
Accepted November 26, 2014

Recently, studies have suggested an association between the Torque teno sus virus (TTSuV) and the Porcine circovirus-2 (PCV2) in PCV2-associated disease cases. The aim of this study was to verify TTSuVs loads in pig faeces from PCV2-positive animals with and without diarrhea from PCVAD-affected and PCV2-unvaccinated herds. A total of 80 faecal samples were collected individually from nursery and grow-finish pigs with (n = 40) or without (n = 40) diarrhea. The samples were tested for PCV2 and TTSuVs by using DNA binding dye SYBR Green quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR). Torque teno sus virus k2 (TTSuVk2) load in the faeces was significantly higher in the nursery pigs with diarrhea, and these pigs also exhibited significantly higher PCV2 (P < 0.01) faecal matter loads compared to the non-diarrheic animals from the same age group. Torque teno sus virus 1 (TTSuV1) viral loads were the same regardless of age group and disease condition. There were no correlations between PCV2 and TTSuV1 or TTSuVk2 and TTSuV1 viral loads; however, a weak correlation (r = 0.23, P = 0.03) was found between TTSuVk2 and PCV2 viral loads. In conclusion, TTSuVk2 viral loads were significantly higher in the diarrheic faeces from the nursery pigs. Additionally, the higher loads of PCV2 and TTSuVk2 in the nursery-diarrheic animals revealed that diarrhea might have an important role in the spread of both viruses in herds.

Keywords

Epidemiology, swine virus, diarrhea, disease.

Funding

The authors would like to thank FAPESP for funding this study (grant no. 2007/57115-3). The CMB received a scholarship from FAPESP (grant no. 08/58822-8).