Scientists from the Institute of Veterinary Medicine, Warsaw University of Life Sciences, carried out important research on animal viruses
A team of scientists from the Institute of Veterinary Medicine, SGGW, under the supervision of prof. dr. hab. Tomasz Stadejek has conducted and published research on porcine circoviruses, which are in line with the most recent global trends in research on emerging and re-emerging viruses of this species.
The publications summarize several years of research work, including the first description of porcine circovirus type 3 (PCV3), and porcine parvovirus 7 (PPV7) in Europe.
Prof. dr hab. Tomasz Stadejek and his research team dr Aleksandra Woźniak i dr Dagmara Miłek were honored with the award in the “Science” category at the Polish Science Gala 2022.
The team’s scientific achievements are of great scientific and practical importance to the global understanding of the importance and evolution of porcine circoviruses and parvoviruses.
The results of the research have been documented with five publications in the scientific journals of the highest rank in veterinary and virology.
In 2019-2022, prof. dr hab. Stadejek conducted research on emerging porcine viruses under the implementation of 3 grants financed by the National Science Centre and the Ministry of Science and Higher Education (KNOW – Healthy Animal – Safe Food). The research resulted in five valuable publications with a total IF value of 17.372.
The teamwork under the supervision of prof. dr hab. Tomasz Stadejek updates the knowledge on the meaning and evolution of porcine circoviruses and parvoviruses. The team has proved that there are three PCV2 genotypes in Poland: PCV2a, PCV2b, and PCV2d; and proposed new diagnostic criteria for the assessment of infections and vaccine effectiveness.
There have been several dramatic outbreaks around the world in recent years, triggered by previously unknown coronaviruses that evolved in non-human species.
The development of diagnostic techniques, including next-generation sequencing, contributed to the discovery of new pathogens of domestic animals origin, including porcine.
The importance of infections for animal and human health is often unknown, therefore it requires some extensive research, including diagnostic and epidemiological studies.
Due to the fact that infections with new and previously known endemic viruses often occur together, and may influence the effectiveness of the economically important diseases control, thus studying these interactions is extremely important from a scientific and practical point of view.
This subject matter is related to the publications of the team consisting of prof. dr hab. Tomasz Stadejek, Dr. Aleksandra Woźniak, Dr. Dagmara Miłek.
The ongoing SARS-Cov2 virus pandemic is extremely painful evidence of the extremely important role of studying the variability and occurrence of circulating viruses, sometimes enzootically, among populations of wild and domestic animals.
Viruses are constantly evolving, and for that reason, they can acquire new pathogenic properties or, by crossing species barriers, adapt to the new host organism.
Although the viruses under study are of known or potential health significance for porcine health, it should be emphasized that, for example, porcine circoviruses have been isolated from species other than swine or wild boar, ruminants, rodents, canines, insects, and crustaceans.
The detection of antigens or DNA of circoviruses in human stool samples or respiratory swabs, or specific antibodies in the serum points out the zoonotic potential of these species.
