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Identification of equine influenza virus infection in Asian wild horses (Equus przewalskii)

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Abstract

An outbreak of equine influenza was observed in the Asian wild horse population in Xinjiang Province, China, in 2007. Nasal swabs were collected from wild horses and inoculated into 9-10-day SPF embryonated eggs. The complete genome of the isolate was sequenced. A comparison of the amino acid sequence revealed that the isolate was an equine influenza virus strain, which we named A/equine/Xinjiang/4/2007. Each gene of the virus was found to have greater than 99 % homology to equine influenza virus strains of the Florida-2 sublineage, which were circulating simultaneously in China, and a lesser amount of homology was found to the strain A/equine/Qinghai/1/1994 (European lineage), which was isolated during the last outbreak in China. These observations were confirmed by phylogenetic analysis. In addition, the deduced amino acid sequence of the neuraminidase of the A/equine/Xinjiang/4/2007 strain was identical to that of A/equine/California/8560/2002, an American isolate, and was found to be similar to those of Florida-2 strains found in other countries by comparing them with nine other field strains that were isolated in China from 2007 to 2008. It is suggested that the neuraminidase segment of A/equine/Xinjiang/4/2007 may have been obtained from equine influenza virus strains from other countries. We report for the first time an outbreak of equine influenza in the Asian wild horse population, and the complete genome of the virus is provided and analyzed.

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Acknowledgments

This research was supported by the National Key Technology Research and Development Program of the Ministry of Science and Technology of China (2012BAD46B01-02 & 2012BAD46B03) and the Special Fund for Agro-scientific Research in the Public Interest of China (201003075).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Veterinary Medicine, Northeast Agricultural University, Harbin, 150001, People’s Republic of China

    Xin Yin

  2. Division of Livestock Infectious Diseases, State Key Laboratory of Veterinary Biotechnology, Harbin Veterinary Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Harbin, 150001, People’s Republic of China

    Xin Yin, Gang Lu, Wei Guo, Ting Qi, Jian Ma, Chao Zhu, Shihua Zhao, Jialiang Pan & Wenhua Xiang

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  1. Xin Yin
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  2. Gang Lu
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  3. Wei Guo
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  4. Ting Qi
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  5. Jian Ma
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  6. Chao Zhu
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  7. Shihua Zhao
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  8. Jialiang Pan
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  9. Wenhua Xiang
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Wenhua Xiang.

Additional information

X. Yin, G. Lu, W. Guo, and T. Qi contributed equally to this study.

Electronic supplementary material

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705_2013_1908_MOESM1_ESM.tif

Supplementary Material Fig. 1 Clinical signs observed in sick wild horses. (1): Depression was observed in the wild horse population; (2): One sick wild horse showed severe nasal discharge; (3): Blood was observed in the external anal and vaginal regions of one dead wild horse. (b) Pathological changes in tissue collected from dead wild horses. (1): Spleen; b (2): Liver; b (3): Kidney; b (4): Lung. (TIFF 3943 kb)

705_2013_1908_MOESM2_ESM.ppt

Supplementary Material Fig. 2 Phylogenetic analysis of the complete genome of A/equine/Xinjiang/4/2007. The genome of A/equine/Xinjiang/4/2007 is shown as a black fixed circle. (PPT 639 kb)

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Yin, X., Lu, G., Guo, W. et al. Identification of equine influenza virus infection in Asian wild horses (Equus przewalskii). Arch Virol 159, 1159–1162 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00705-013-1908-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00705-013-1908-z

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