Mixed treatment comparison meta-analysis of porcine circovirus type 2 (PCV2) vaccines used in piglets

Porcine circovirus type 2 (PCV2) vaccination is globally one of the most commonly used intervention strategies in growing pigs since several products became commercially available in 2006. While multiple trials have described the efficacy of individual PCV2 vaccines relative to non-vaccination, few studies provide product-to-product comparisons of efficacy. Given the well-documented efficacy of PCV2 vaccines, information about the comparative efficacy of available vaccines is more relevant to producers and veterinarians than comparison to non-vaccination. The objective of this study was to provide comparative estimates of changes in average daily gain effect associated with the use of the commercially available PCV2 vaccines. PubMed, CAB Abstracts, AGRICOLA, the USA Department of Agriculture Center for Veterinary Biologics database of licenses and provisions, and the proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the American Association of Swine Veterinarians, the Allen D. Leman Swine Conference, the Iowa State University Swine Disease Conference for Swine Practitioners, and the International Pig Veterinary Society Congress were used as the sources of information. Trials of licensed PCV2 vaccines administered according to manufacturers' specifications to intensively raised piglets with a known herd porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (PRRSV) status were considered relevant to the meta-analysis. Relevant studies had to report average daily gain (ADG) from weaning to finish and PCV2 infection had to be naturally occurring.