Prevalence of Porcine Circovirus Type 2 in Naturally Infected Pigs in Abeokuta, Nigeria

Porcine circovirus type 2 (PCV2) associated diseases are a group of emerging devastating pig diseases worldwide. Due to a dearth of information on the virus in Nigeria, this study was carried out on 12 farms in Abeokuta Ogun State, Nigeria. Key production problems were identified through a questionnaire survey and direct field observations. The prevalence of the PCV2 was determined by the Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR); 207 sera of pigs were obtained from the farms, DNAs extracted and amplified by the PCR. Based on gel results, the prevalence of PCV2 types were recorded and the effects of age, sex and geographic area determined. The observed production problems (and the percentage of farms suffering from such problems) were: runting (91.7 %), high piglet mortality (83.3 %), late term abortion (50 %), stillbirth (50 %) and anoestrous (41.7 %). The overall prevalence of 8.7 % of the PCV2 viral DNA was obtained. A single infection of PCV2b and PCV2a accounted for a prevalence of 5.3 % and 2.4 %, respectively, while a concurrent infection of both was found in only 1 % of the pigs. The prevalence of PCV2 was not significantly (P > 0.05) influenced by age or sex; with the rates in adults, growers and piglets being 9.9 %, 8.1 % and 8.1 %, respectively, while in males and females, the rates were 9.4 % and 9.0 %, respectively. The prevalence of PCV2 in high-density areas (13.2 %) was significantly (P < 0.05) higher than in low-density areas (4.0 %). It was concluded that PCV2a and PCV2b were present in pigs in Abeokuta, Nigeria and PCV2b was more prevalent. It was recommended that large-scale epidemiological studies covering all geographical regions be carried out with sequencing and phylogenetic analysis to characterize the PCV2 genotypes present in Nigeria.