Presence of atypical porcine pestivirus (APPV) genomes in newborn piglets correlates with congenital tremor

Postel, A. et al. (2016) Presence of atypical porcine pestivirus (APPV) genomes in newborn piglets correlates with congenital tremor. Scientific Reports, 6, 27735. (doi: 10.1038/srep27735) (PMID:27292119) (PMCID:PMC4904412)

Abstract

Pestiviruses are highly variable RNA viruses belonging to the continuously growing family Flaviviridae. A genetically very distinct pestivirus was recently discovered in the USA, designated atypical porcine pestivirus (APPV). Here, a screening of 369 sera from apparently healthy adult pigs demonstrated the existence of APPV in Germany with an estimated individual prevalence of 2.4% and ~10% at farm level. Additionally, APPV genomes were detected in newborn piglets affected by congenital tremor (CT), but genomes were absent in unaffected piglets. High loads of genomes were identified in glandular epithelial cells, follicular centers of lymphoid organs, the inner granular cell layer of the cerebellum, as well as in the trigeminal and spinal ganglia. Retrospective analysis of cerebellum samples from 2007 demonstrated that APPV can be found in piglets with CT of unsolved aetiology. Determination of the first European APPV complete polyprotein coding sequence revealed 88.2% nucleotide identity to the APPV sequence from the USA. APPV sequences derived from different regions in Germany demonstrated to be highly variable. Taken together, the results of this study strongly suggest that the presence of APPV genomes in newborn piglets correlates with CT, while no association with clinical disease could be observed in viremic adult pigs.

• Item Type: Articles
• Additional Information: This work was supported in part by DG SANCO of the European Commission, Niedersachsen-Research Network on Neuroinfectiology (N-RENNT) of the Ministry of Science and Culture of Lower Saxony, Germany and by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under grant agreement No. 643476 (COMPARE).
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Herder, Dr Vanessa
• Authors: Postel, A., Hansmann, F., Baechlein, C., Fischer, N., Alawi, M., Grundhoff, A., Derking, S., Tenhündfeld, J., Pfankuche, V. M., Herder, V., Baumgärtner, W., Wendt, M., and Becher, P.
• College/School: College of Medical Veterinary and Life Sciences > School of Infection & Immunity > Centre for Virus Research
• Journal Name: Scientific Reports
• Publisher: Nature Research
• ISSN: 2045-2322
• ISSN (Online): 2045-2322
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2016 The Authors
• First Published: First published in Scientific Reports 6: 27735
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced under a Creative Commons License