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Accession numbers, origin, year of detection and HEV subtypes of sequences of hepatitis E virus RNA used in this study. (DOCX 23 kb)

Porcine circovirus type 2 (PCV2) has been present for the last 2 decades in Croatia, with its highest incidence level in 2004. The clinical features of the disease have altered within this period. Infections until 2008 were mostly accompanied by severe signs such as enteritic and respiratory disorders, erythematous skin lesions that showed a tendency to progress to dermal necrosis accompanied by a high mortality rate of primarily 4 to 16 week-old pigs. Later PCV2 infections were milder and mostly manifested as waste loss and poor growth performance as well as reproductive failure in pregnant sows. In both cases the disease had a direct negative impact on the pig production. Since the infection is continuously present in some regions of Croatia, the heterogeneity of detected PCV2 strains prior to 2008 with strains isolated in 2012 were compared for a better insight in the epidemiological situation. The results of phylogenetic analysis revealed that the viral strains found in 2012 genetically differ from those detected in earlier years. This indicates that new entries into the pig population appeared probably due to pig trade.

Porcine circovirus type 2 has been circulating in pigs for many years before being linked to disease. In the last ten years porcine circovirus 2 (PCV2) has moved from the arcane to near center stage in veterinary virology. In Croatia the main epidemic outbreak of PCV2 infection happened in 2004 and caused great economic losses in pig industry. The purpose of this paper was to investigate the current situation regarding PCV2 infection in Croatia. During 2007-2013 a total of 2518 samples of pig blood serum were tested by ELISA. Antibodies to PCV2 were detected in 398 (15.80%) of the tested sera and established in 5 of 9 investigated regions. Virus circulation was confirmed by PCR. The obtained results showed that 100 (53.19%) of 188 examined tissue samples were PCV2 PCR positive.Our results provide information on the current disease exposure to PCV2 infection in Croatian pig populations. PCV2 is not a notifiable disease and obligatory national program is carried out in Croatia but effective monitoring of the health control should be applied.