Postnatal Persistent Infection with Classical Swine Fever Virus and Its Immunological Implications

Muñoz-González, Sara; Ruggli, Nicolas; Rosell, Rosa; Pérez, Lester Josué; Frías-Leuporeau, Maria Teresa; Fraile, Lorenzo; Montoya, Maria; Cordoba, Lorena; Domingo, Mariano; Ehrensperger, Felix; Summerfield, Artur; Ganges, Llilianne

The pathogenicity of the two CSFV field isolates was studied in newborn piglets. To this end, two litters of 10 piglets each were inoculated intranasally on the day of their birth with 2.5 x 10 4 TCID 50 of CSFV strains PR and Cat01, respectively. The infected piglets were kept with the dam for 6 weeks and were monitored for clinical symptoms, virus replication and immune responses against CSFV. In the PR and Cat01 group, three and five animals, respectively, did not show visible clinical signs over the 6 week duration of the experiment. Fever peaks during the first 15 days post-infection were detected in the infected animals, especially in PR infected group. In addition, similar profiles in the rectal temperature values were found for both groups during the trial. Only 5 days (3, 6, 7, 13 and 15 dpi) were significantly different between the groups (Figs 1 and 2).