Objective: Our study is to analyse the coinfection effects of porcine circovirus type 2 (PCV2) and porcine parvovirus (PPV) in vivo on phagocytosis and interferon mRNA expression level of porcine alveolar macrophages (PAM).
Methods: Forty-eight 5-week-old healthy piglets were divided randomly into 4 groups of 12 (PCV2, PPV, PCV2/PPV and the control groups). The piglets in PCV2 group were inoculated oronasally with 3 mL of porcine circovirus type2 (PCV2, 10(5.61) TCID50/0.1 mL), PPV group with 3 mL of porcine parvovirus (PPV, 10(6.69) TCID50/0.1 mL), PCV2/PPV group with 3 mL of PCV2 and 3 mL of PPV and the control group with 3 mL of cell culture medium, respectively. Three piglets from each group were sacrificed randomly on 3, 7, 14 and 35 day post infection (dpi) and porcine alveolar macrophages (PAM) were collected to detect viability, phagocytotic capabilities and alpha1- and gamma-interferon (IFN-alpha1 and IFN-gamma) mRNA levels of PAM.
Results: The viabilities of PAM from PCV2 group and PCV2/PPV group became weaker than that of control group during the period of 3 - 14 dpi but they were similar to that of control group on 35 dpi; there was no significant difference between the viability of PCV2/PPV group and that of PCV2 group (P > 0.05). The phagocytotic capabilities of PAM from three virus infection groups were lower than that of control group (P < 0.01), among which that of PCV2/PPV group descended more drastically. IFN-alpha1 and IFN-gamma mRNA levels in PAM from PCV2/PPV group were significantly lower than those of PCV2, PPV and control groups (P < 0.01).
Conclusion: PCV2/PPV co-infection did not cause further decline of PAM viability but strongly weakened phagocytosis and constantly lowered IFN (IFN-alpha1 and IFN-gamma) mRNA expression levels of PAM.