Modified indirect porcine circovirus (PCV) type 2-based and recombinant capsid protein (ORF2)-based enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays for detection of antibodies to PCV.

Postweaning multisystemic wasting syndrome of swine associated with porcine circovirus (PCV) is a recently reported and economically important disease. Simple and reliable diagnostic methods are needed for detecting antibodies to PCV type 2 (PCV2) for monitoring of PCV infection. Here, we report the development of two modified indirect enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISAs): a PCV2 ELISA based on cell-culture-propagated PCV2 and an ORF2 ELISA based on recombinant major capsid protein.

Open reading frame 2 of porcine circovirus type 2 encodes a major capsid protein.

Porcine circovirus 2 (PCV2), a single-stranded DNA virus associated with post-weaning multisystemic wasting syndrome of swine, has two potential open reading frames, ORF1 and ORF2, greater than 600 nucleotides in length. ORF1 is predicted to encode a replication-associated protein (Rep) essential for replication of viral DNA, while ORF2 contains a conserved basic amino acid sequence at the N terminus resembling that of the major structural protein of chicken anaemia virus. Thus far, the structural protein(s) of PCV2 have not been identified.