Evaluation of a nested polymerase chain reaction assay to differentiate between two genotypes of Porcine circovirus-2.

Porcine circovirus-2 (PCV-2) is associated with several diseases in pigs, including postweaning multisystemic wasting syndrome (PMWS). A new genotype of PCV-2 was isolated from swine farms with and without clinical PMWS in North America. The new genotype was differentiated in a separate cluster by phylogenetic analyses and is now named PCV-2b compared with PCV-2a for the previously known genotype. The purpose of this study was to develop and evaluate a nested polymerase chain reaction (nPCR) assay to detect and differentiate between PCV-2a and PCV-2b. Genotype-specific primer sets were designed by using sequence data published for different PCV-2 strains. Specificity and sensitivity of the nPCR were examined by using PCV-2 isolates with known genotype. Nested PCR was found to be highly specific and sensitive for detecting and differentiating between the PCV-2 genotypes compared with the conventional 1-step PCR assay. Nested PCR was applied to detect PCV-2 and to identify the genotype in serum samples from swine farms with and without a clinical history of PMWS. Of 60 serum samples collected from 4 farms during clinical PMWS outbreaks, PCV-2a and PCV-2b were detected in 6 and 49 samples, respectively. Six of the 10 samples from one of the 4 farms had both PCV-2a and PCV-2b. Of 20 serum samples from 2 farms without PMWS, 11 were positive for PCV-2a only. These results suggest that the differential nPCR can be used to detect PCV-2 and to differentiate the 2 genotypes from field samples.