Minimal Dosage of Porcine Circovirus Type 2d Based Virus-like Particles to Induce Stable Protective Immunity against Infection

In recent years, porcine circovirus type 2d (PCV2d) has achieved a dominant position worldwide. Various PCV2d capsid-based vaccines have been used to alleviate concerns regarding the emergence of the variant. This study aimed to determine the dosage of recombinant PCV2d capsid protein to induce protective efficacy against experimental challenge with a virulent PCV2d strain. Conventional 3-week-old pigs were intramuscularly inoculated with different doses of the protein (60, 20, 10 and 2 µg). Four weeks after vaccination, all pigs were challenged with pathogenic PCV2d (SNU140003), which was isolated from a farm severely experiencing PCV2-associated disease in Korea. Vaccination with greater than 10 µg of the capsid protein caused a significant (p < 0.05) reduction in PCV2d viremia, lymphoid lesions and lymphoid PCV2 antigen levels in vaccinated challenged pigs compared to unvaccinated challenged pigs. The vaccination also resulted in significantly higher (p < 0.05) titers of neutralizing antibodies against PCV2d. However, the pigs vaccinated with 2 µg had significantly lower neutralizing antibody titers than the other vaccinated groups. They showed a similar level of challenged PCV2d in serum and lymphoid lesion score compared to unvaccinated challenged pigs. The difference in efficacy among the vaccinated groups indicates that there may be a baseline dosage to induce sufficient neutralizing antibodies to prevent viral replication in pigs. In conclusion, at least 10 µg dosage of capsid protein is essential for stable protective efficacy against PCV2d in a pig model.