Isolation and characterization of the first porcine Getah virus strain
HNJZ-S1 from an aborted piglet in China
Abstract
Severity of porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS)
implicated co-infection with other pathogens in pig herd in China, which
normally were found Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV), pseudorabies
virus (PRV), porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus
(PRRSV), porcine circovirus, porcine parvovirus and classical swine
fever virus (CSFV). Here we verified a specific fragment which was
similar to Getah virus (GETV) by RT-PCR and sequencing from aborted
fetuses in Henan province, China. Then we isolated and purified the
stain virus. We named it as HNJZ-S1. Furthermore, we characterized
HNJZ-S1 by passage and plaque titer, whole genome sequencing, Electron
microscopy and animal infection experiments with mice and piglets. The
data show that the full-length genome sequence of HNJZ-S1was 11689 bp
with homologous 97.4%–99.3% identical to the GETV sequence available
in GenBank. Phylogenetic tree analysis showed that HNJZ-S1 was closely
related to mosquito isolate 12IH26 from Japan, horse isolates
14-I-605-C1 and 14- I-605-C2, and mosquito isolate HB0234 from China.
Animal experiments showed that the isolate HNJZ-S1 caused abortion in
pregnant mice and was lethal postnatal day 3 mice and piglets. This
study provides important information on the tropism, infection,
pathogenicity, environmental microbiology and public health implications
of pig derived GETV and will also serve as a source of reliable research
materials.