CURRENT STUDY OF PORCINE CIRCOVIRUS TYPE 2 IN CROATIAN PIG POPULATIONS

Porcine circovirus type 2 has been circulating in pigs for many years before being linked to disease. In the last ten years porcine circovirus 2 (PCV2) has moved from the arcane to near center stage in veterinary virology. In Croatia the main epidemic outbreak of PCV2 infection happened in 2004 and caused great economic losses in pig industry. The purpose of this paper was to investigate the current situation regarding PCV2 infection in Croatia. During 2007-2013 a total of 2518 samples of pig blood serum were tested by ELISA. Antibodies to PCV2 were detected in 398 (15.80%) of the tested sera and established in 5 of 9 investigated regions. Virus circulation was confirmed by PCR. The obtained results showed that 100 (53.19%) of 188 examined tissue samples were PCV2 PCR positive.Our results provide information on the current disease exposure to PCV2 infection in Croatian pig populations. PCV2 is not a notifiable disease and obligatory national program is carried out in Croatia but effective monitoring of the health control should be applied