A Cross-Sectional and Exploratory Geospatial
Study of Bovine Viral Diarrhea Virus (BVDV) Infections in Swines in
the São Paulo State, Brazil
Henrique Meiroz de
Souza Almeida*, Igor Renan Honorato Gatto, Anne Caroline
Ramos dos Santos, Antônio Sérgio Ferraudo, Samir Issa Samara and
Luís Guilherme de Oliveira
UNESP – University Estadual Paulista, Faculdade
de Ciências Agrárias e Veterinárias (FCAV), Via de acesso Prof.
Paulo Castellane, s/n, CEP 14884-900, Jaboticabal, São Paulo, Brazil *Corresponding author: henri_almeida2003@yahoo.com.br
Abstract
Reports of the first isolation of a ruminant
Pestivirus (BVDV) from swine were in
1973, and since then the occurrence of cross-infections has been reported in
many countries and the serological cross-reaction between the Classical Swine
Fever Virus (CSFV) and the Bovine Viral Diarrhea Virus (BVDV) antibodies can
interfere in Classical Swine Fever (CSF) eradication. This study focused on
establishing the prevalence of antibodies anti-BVDV in pigs of non-technified
rearing farms, associating risk factors to the infection and using geospatial
analysis tools to identify high risk of positive herd’s areas and other
epidemiological features. A set of 360 serum samples from 56 herds were
collected and analyzed using the virus neutralization test (VN). In total, 4.72%
(17) of the samples had antibodies and 26.79% (15) of the herds had at least one
positive animal. The titers obtained ranged from 640 to 10 for BVDV-1 and 80 to
10 in BVDV-2. The Kernel’s distribution map showed two high risk of infection
areas, which were associated using a statistical multiple correspondence
analysis (MCA) with the presence of bovine herds and median total swine herd
size. The use of raw milk in the swine feed was associated with disease
presence. In conclusion, BVDV antibodies were detected in swine serum and
possible links between bovines and swine herds in transmission of BVDV from
cattle to swine and the problems that might arise from serological
cross-reaction in CSF tests due to the presence of anti-BVDV antibodies in swine
serum are discussed.