Porcine parvovirus: frequency of naturally occurring transplacental infection and viral contamination of fetal porcine kidney cell cultures.

The frequency of naturally occurring transplacental infection of swine with porcine parvovirus (PPV) and one of the possible consequences of such infection--the presence of PPV in cell cultures prepared from fetal tissues--were investigated. Transplacental infection was indicated by the presence of high titers of hemagglutination inhibiting (HI) antibody for PPV in serums of 0-day-old, hysterectomy-derived, colostrum-deprived pigs of 3 of 82 litters. All letters were farm-raised dams. Moreover, cell cultures prepared from 3 of 49 lots of fetal porcine kidneys (FPK) collected from an abattoir during an interval of 14 months were found contaminated with PPV. Because each lot was usually comprised of kidneys from 2 litters, the latter finding suggests that 3 of approximately 98 litters were infected. Prior infection of FPK cell cultures with PPV resulted in only slight interference of replication of other selected viruses; i.e., porcine enterovirus (PEV), pseudorabies virus (PRV), vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV), and hemagglutinating encephalomyelitis virus (HEV). Moreover, PPV and HEV were propagated in the same cell cultures during 5 serial passages of the viruses. In contrast, when copropagation of PPV and VSV was attempted, PPV was not detected after the 2nd serial passage.