Swinepox is an acute, usually mild infectious disease found globally.
Swinepox is characterized by small, round, reddened skin macules, vesicles, and then ulcers that scab over and heal (see ). The whole disease process takes approximately 4 weeks.
Courtesy of Dr. Paul Gibbs.
Swinepox affects only pigs, including wild boars, and occurs mainly in younger pigs, up to approximately 4 months old. Older pigs can be subclinically infected and a source of infection to younger pigs.
Swinepox virus gains entry to the skin through preexisting wounds or abrasions and via ectoparasites, including lice, mites, and flies. Therefore, its prevalence depends highly on the type of management system.
Rarely, congenital swinepox infection can occur and lead to stillbirth or neonatal death.
There is no treatment for swinepox, and pigs usually recover uneventfully.
Swinepox virus (Suipoxvirus swinepox) is antigenically distinct from other poxviruses, and there is no vaccine. Like other poxviruses, it can survive in the environment for up to a year, so it can be difficult to eradicate from a herd. Control is based mainly on hygiene and the control of arthropod vectors.
Diagnosis of swinepox is usually based on clinical signs. Vesicles, particularly in the mouth, could be confused with signs of other, much more serious diseases of pigs (eg, foot-and-mouth disease, vesicular stomatitis, swine vesicular disease, vesicular exanthema of swine, Senecavirus A); however, finding typical pocks elsewhere on the body surface is usually diagnostic.
Swinepox virus can be grown in cell culture or detected by electron microscopy or PCR assay.
For More Information
Kaiser FK, Wiedemann A, Kühl B, et al. Swinepox virus strains isolated from domestic pigs and wild boar in Germany display altered coding capacity in the terminal genome region encoding for species-specific genes. Viruses. 2021;13(10):2038.
