Acta Veterinaria et Zootechnica Sinica ›› 2024, Vol. 55 ›› Issue (5): 2072-2079.doi: 10.11843/j.issn.0366-6964.2024.05.025

• PREVENTIVE VETERINARY MEDICINE • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Establishment of ELISA for Detection of PCV4-Cap Antibody and Sero-epidemiological Survey

SONG Xiaoqing1, DENG Ruide1, LI Xin1, LI Jiao2, LI Runcheng1, DU Lifei3, DONG Wei1, GE Meng1*   

  1. 1. College of Veterinary Medicine, Hunan Agricultural University, Changsha 410128, China;
    2. Hunan Meishen Breeding Co., Ltd, Zhuzhou 412000, China;
    3. Hunan Animal and Veterinary Science, Changsha 410131, China
  • Received:2023-08-15 Online:2024-05-23 Published:2024-05-27

Abstract: The present study aimed to develop an indirect ELISA to detect antibodies against the Cap protein of porcine circovirus type 4 (PCV4), and to detect PCV4 antibodies in pigs, then compare the results with previous investigations on PCV4 seroepidemiology, so as to understand the prevalence and infection of PCV4 in swine populations more comprehensively. PCV4 Cap protein was successfully expressed in a prokaryotic expression system. By optimizing the reaction conditions, an indirect ELISA method based on PCV4 Cap protein was established. To investigate the serological prevalence of PCV4 in Chinese pig herds, 2 298 serum samples from pigs at different growth stages from 18 provinces in China were analyzed using the established ELISA method. Concurrently, the Cap-ELISA method was compared with Rep-ELISA, and 845 serum samples were tested in parallel. The results showed that PCV4 antibodies were detected in serum samples from 17 out of the 18 provinces. The total seroprevalence of PCV4 was 34.94%, and the positive rates of sows and finishing pigs were 59.95% and 31.64%, respectively. The positive rate of piglets was 21.14%, while nursery pigs had the lowest positive rate at 4.20%. A total of 845 serum samples were tested using both methods, and the coincidence rate was 82.84%. The Cap-ELISA test yielded an overall positive rate of 31.83%, while the Rep-ELISA test had an overall positive rate of 35.03%. Studies have demonstrated the widespread prevalence of PCV4 across the country and its ability to infect pigs of all ages. The Cap-ELISA and Rep-ELISA techniques exhibited a high degree of concordance, and based on the antibody growth and decline trends, both methods indicated that PCV4 infection primarily occurs in finishing pigs and sows. The present study provides the most recent data on the seroepidemiological characteristics of PCV4 in China and PCV4 infection prevalence in pigs at different growth stages, which could facilitate further research on PCV4 and its management.

Key words: PCV4, prokaryotic expression, indirect ELISA, seroepidemiological survey

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