DETECTION OF TORQUE TENO SUS VIRUS (TTSUV) IN CLINICAL SPECIMENS OF PIGS WITH CLASSICAL SWINE FEVER, PORCINE REPRODUCTIVE AND RESPIRATORY SYNDROME, AND PORCINE CIRCOVIRUS 2 INFECTIONS

Torque teno sus viruses (TTSuVs) have never been implicated in direct causation of any disease; however, their role as cofactors in precipitation of certain disease conditions is gaining some support. Considering the spurt in the number of outbreaks of porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS), porcine circovirus 2 (PCV2) infections and classical swine fever (CSF) in India, we have investigated the extent of association of TTSuVs with the above said viruses by PCR. The TTsuVs were detected in 53% and 26.22% of CSFV-PRRSV-PCV-positive and apparently healthy negative tissue samples respectively. In serum, these were detected respectively in 29.60% and 21.42 % of CSFV-PRRSVinfected and apparently samples. The results obtained for the tissue samples is in concurrence with the observations of previous studies which reported higher prevalence of TTSuVs in CSFV-PRRSV-PCV-positive clinical specimens as compared to the healthy ones. This is the first report of co-infection of TTSuVs with CSFV, PRRSV and PCV from India. Future works are needed to establish pathogenic role of TTSuVs through experimental studies.