A POLYCLONAL -ANTIBODY-IMMUNOPEROXIDASE-CONJUGATE FOR THE SPECIFIC DETECTION OF PORCINE CIRCOVIRUS TYPE 2

Abstract

Porcine circovirus 2 is nowadays accepted as the essential infectious agent of postweaning multisystemic wasting syndrome which causes severe economic losses in porcine production worldwide. The diagnosis of PMWS is a difficult task and must follow three criteria: (i) the presence of compatible
clinical signs, (ii) the presence of characteristic microscopic histopathological lesions, and (iii) the presence of PCV2 within these lesions in moderate or high. The presence of PCV2 in lymphoid tissues must be demonstrated by in situ hybridization or immunohistochemical methods. The in situ hybridization is a
more complex and expense compared to other diagnostic tools, on the other hand, one problem concerning the immunohistochemical methods for PMWS diagnostic is the lack of a commercial anti-PCV2 peroxidase conjugate; therefore, the aim of this work was to obtain a polyclonal-antibodyimmunoperoxidase-conjugate for the PCV2 specific detection. An anti-PCV2-peroxidase conjugated for the PCV2 specific detection was obtained based on the use of the available commercial vaccine against PCV2 as immunogenic inoculation for producing a polyclonal antibody in rabbits. The conjugate obtained was able to discriminate between PCV2 and PCV1 infections and a high sensitivity and specificity of the conjugate were observed.