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At the end of 2024, veterinarians reported unusual abnormalities in piglets on several pig farms to the animal health organization Royal GD. Symptoms included bulging eyes with an abnormal position, sometimes accompanied by excessively red, balding, and wrinkled skin. These symptoms were likely caused by a variant of parvovirus not previously found in pigs.
Following the initial reports, the GD initiated extensive epidemiological and diagnostic research, including comprehensive pathological and microbiological examinations. Cases of the aforementioned abnormalities in piglets from approximately fifty pig farms have now been reported, primarily in the eastern and southern Netherlands. The abnormalities occur in a few piglets in 20-70% of litters, but are not fatal. The symptoms disappear over time.
Despite intensive research, the exact cause of these abnormalities could initially not be determined. Recently, advanced virus discovery methods revealed a parvovirus variant in the tissues and blood of affected animals. Although the link between all reported clinical symptoms and the discovery of this virus cannot yet be established with 100% certainty, there is sufficient reason to assume that this virus plays a role in the clinical problems. The GD, in collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, Food Security, and Nature and the Pig Farmers' Producer Organization (POV), as commissioners of the pig health monitoring program, is conducting follow-up research into this link.
The parvovirus variant found in the affected piglets is genetically most similar to a parvovirus found in several fox fecal samples in the Netherlands in 2012. The parvovirus now found in affected piglets has several mutations compared to the 2012 parvovirus. Almost every pig farm is familiar with porcine parvovirus type 1 (PPV1), which can cause fertility problems. Effective vaccines are also available. The recently discovered parvovirus is genetically distant from PPV1. For this reason, it is expected that vaccination against PPV1 will not induce cross-immunity against the new parvovirus variant, but this is still unknown.
July 8, 2025/ Royal GD/ The Netherlands.
https://www.gddiergezondheid.nl/
