PASSIVE TRANSFER OF MATERNAL ANTIBODIES TO PCV2 PROTECTS AGAINST DEVELOPMENT OF PMWS: EXPERIMENTAL INFECTIONS AND A FIELD STUDY
G.M. Allan, F. McNeilly, I. McNair, B. Meehan, M. Marshall, J. Ellis, C. Lasagna, G. Boriosi, S. Krakowka, G. Reynaud, L. Boeuf-Tedeschi, M. Bublot and C. Charreyre

Abstract
The results of an experimental infection study and a field trial to elucidate the effects of natural passive transfer of antibodies to PCV2 in colostrum to piglets on the development of clinical PMWS are reported. In the experimental disease model, suckled piglets derived from sows with high serum antibodies to PCV2 were protected against PMWS, but not infection with PCV2 following exposure to a cell culture grown isolate of PCV2. Piglets derived from sows with low levels of serum antibody to PCV2 were not protected against PMWS. In the field trial, serum antibody levels to PCV2 were determined in 8 randomly selected sows/gilts on a PMWS-affected farm and the progeny from these animals individually tagged, bled at 3 days of age and monitored for disease until 12-13 weeks of age.
???? Diagnosis of PMWS was based on clinical signs, histological lesions and the demonstration of an abundance of PCV2 antigen associated with these lesions. None of the 36 piglets derived from 3 mothers with PCV2 serum antibody levels of >1/1280 developed PMWS. Six piglets derived from two mothers with PCV2 serum antibody levels of 1/50 and four piglets derived from 3 mothers with PCV2 serum antibody levels of 1/250-1/500 developed PMWS.

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