Comparison of protection provided by type 1 and type 2 porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome field viruses against homologous and heterologous challenge

•Homologous challenges resulted in protection with both type 1 and type 2 PRRSV.•Primary challenge with type 1 PRRSV failed to provide protection against heterologous challenge with type 2 PRRSV.•Primary challenge with type 2 PRRSV provided protection against heterologous challenge with type 1 PRRSV.

The objective of this study was to compare protection provided by type 1 and type 2 porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (PRRSV) against homologous and heterologous challenge based on clinical, virological, immunological, and pathological analysis. At 3 and 8 weeks of age, pigs were inoculated intranasally with either 3 mL of tissue culture fluid containing 105 TCID50/mL of type 1 PRRSV or 3 mL of tissue culture fluid containing 105 TCID50/mL of type 2 PRRSV. The homologous challenges resulted in a significant boost of the neutralizing antibodies (NA) and interferon-γ secreting cells (IFN-γ-SC) compared to heterologous challenges. The reduction of secondary challenging PRRSV viremia coincided with the appearance of homologous PRRSV-specific NA and IFN-γ-SC. Homologous challenge reduced the severity of lung lesions and levels of PRRSV viremia significantly in pigs in comparison with heterologous challenge. The differences in homologous and heterologous NA and IFN-γ-SC response may explain the differences in protection against homologous and heterologous challenge between type 1 and type 2 PRRSV. Primary challenge (immunization) with type 1 PRRSV provided protection against the secondary homologous challenge with type 1 PRRSV but failed to provide protection against the secondary heterologous challenge of type 2 PRRSV. Primary challenge with type 2 PRRSV provided protection against both the secondary homologous challenge with type 2 PRRSV and the secondary heterologous challenge with type 1 PRRSV.