In one way, you can consider this year the 40th anniversary of PCV (Porcine Circovirus or PCV2) said Dr. Brian Payne, FLEX technical manger for Boehringer Ingelheim during the recent Swine Health Seminar. He explained that in 1974 it was first isolated but the industry didn’t know what it meant. During the next 25 years or so, more studies were done and then Porcine Cirocvirus was split into PCV1 and PCV2 based on genetic sequencing and what they were finding in the field.

As Dr. Payne explained, even PCV2 is “mutating”. He said that any virus is going to mutate, or change, over time. As a result, PCV2 has been categorized into PCV2a and PCV2b. He noted that if a producer has circavirus in his swine herd, he or she will know it but most don’t sequence the virus any further because they both affect the herd in basically the same way.

I asked Dr. Payne if PCV2a and PCV2b should be treated in the same way. He said this was a good question and when you are asking if a farm with PCV2a should be treated the same way as a farm with PCV2b, you’re really talking about prevention with a vaccine.

“All the vaccines today including CircoFLEX are PCV2a vaccines but they protect equally as well for PCV2b,” said Dr. Payne, who recommends CircoFLEX at three weeks of age. He said it’s here, and here to stay. He also noted that a guild going into a sow herd needs to be vaccinated one more time. Evidence is showing that when these two prevention strategies are combined, there is more benefit than the piglet vaccination alone.

Listen my interview with Dr. Payne here to learn more about PCV2 and effective prevention strategies. Interview with Dr. Brian Payne on PCV2

Check out the BIVI guest adventures in the BIVI Big D Swine Health Seminar photo album.