The Fort Dodge vaccine is licensed for use in pigs 4 weeks of age and older. Connor stresses for vaccine efficacy, however, it is important to get ahead of PCV2 infection.

To that end, there is a movement to vaccinate pigs younger, at 1-3 weeks of age, under veterinary direction, which also helps get ahead of co-infections such as porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS) that occur in the nursery, he states.

By vaccinating pigs earlier, it is possible to vaccinate “through maternal antibody” to protect younger piglets from disease, and still provide an adequate duration of immunity through finishing, Connor explains.

Most cases of PCV2 typically occur 2-4 weeks into the finisher phase. During the following 2-3-week time period, affected pigs drastically lose weight and dramatically fall behind penmates.

Connor says in the last 12 months, there have been some field reports of sow herds being affected, aborted fetuses and weak-born piglets. Some reports indicate vaccinating sows have dramatically lowered the impact of disease, but field trials need to be completed to determine the impact of PCV2 on reproductive performance.

Ileitis-type diarrhea is also a definite part of the circovirus syndrome that has gone largely undetected until recently.

Connor says vaccine alone won't stop circovirus, so producers must manage co-infections and work on pig flow.

“A lot of data from 2-3 years ago shows that poor pig flows, poorly ventilated barns and barns that don't get dry have a much higher rate of failure, of clinical outbreaks of PCVAD,” he says.

Individual animal therapy hasn't been cost effective when it comes to managing pigs infected with PCVAD. The best strategy has been to remove sick pigs from the barn to treat them elsewhere or euthanize them, he adds.

With limited vaccine availability in the last year, Connor says the strategy has been to intervene with vaccine in the most serious problem flows and work on improving management in other affected pig flows to minimize losses.

Biosecurity systems in the United States today are not adequate to keep out porcine circovirus, charges R.B. “Butch” Baker, DVM, Iowa State University (ISU).

While at North Carolina State University's College of Veterinary Medicine, Baker investigated a major outbreak of circovirus in one of the higher-health systems in the state. The sow farm was PRRS-stable, had few problems with Mycoplasmal pneumonia and little respiratory disease. Although the pigs from this system were PCV2-positive, no wasting or mortality syndrome originally existed.

“Something changed and this previously highly productive system developed severe PCVAD. This farm had averaged approximately 4.5% mortality from wean to slaughter the previous year, but once PCVAD started, some of the finishing barns suffered high mortalities, occasionally greater than 30%; one was even more than 50%, and the site I visited had 53% mortality,” Baker says.

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