Fetal Mummification Associated with Porcine Parvovirus Infection

A crossbred gilt farrowed 2 mummified fetuses at term, but subsequently developed uterine inertia and became listless. The remaining 5 fetuses of the litter (4 mummified and 1 normal appearing) were collected by hysterectomy. Porcine parvovirus (PPV) was isolated from tissues of the mummified fetuses, and masses of viral antigen were detected throughout the same tissues when cryostat sections were examined by immunofluorescence microscopy. Serum from the normal-appearing fetus of this litter had a hemagglutination inhibition (HI) titer for PPV of 320. The finding of antibody (HI titer of 1,280) in serum collected from the gilt on the day of farrowing, but not in serum collected 67 days before, indicated initial exposure to PPV during gestation.