Abstract
Porcine pegivirus (PPgV) is a member of the Pegivirus genus in the Flaviviridae family. PPgV is an emerging virus that has been discovered in swine herds in Germany, the United States, China, Poland, Italy, and the United Kingdom, indicating a wide geographical distribution. In this retrospective study, 339 pig serum samples were collected from 20 different commercial swine farms located in nine cities in Guangdong Province, China, from 2016 to 2018, to investigate the prevalence and genetic diversity of PPgV in this geographical region. PPgV was detected in 55% (11/20) of the farms using nested reverse transcription PCR, with 6.2% (21/339) of pigs testing positive for PPgV. The yearly PPgV-positive rate increased from 2.6% to 7.5% between 2016 and 2018. Sequencing of PPgV-positive samples identified two complete polyprotein genes and seven partial NS5B genes from different farms. Comparative analysis of the polyprotein genes revealed that PPgV sequences obtained in this study showed 87.4%–97.2% similarity at the nucleotide level and 96.5%–99.4% similarity at the amino acid level with the reference sequences. Sequence alignment and phylogenetic analysis of the complete polyprotein gene and partial NS5B and NS3 genes demonstrated a high genetic similarity with the samples from the USA. The finding of the wide distribution of PPgV in swine herds in Guangdong Province will contribute to the understanding of the epidemiological characteristics and genetic evolution of PPgV in China.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
Explore related subjects
Discover the latest articles and news from researchers in related subjects, suggested using machine learning.References
Baechlein C, Grundhoff A, Fischer N, Alawi M, Hoeltig D, Waldmann K, Becher P (2016) Pegivirus infection in domestic pigs, Germany. Emerg Infect Dis 22:1312–1314
Berg MG, Lee D, Coller K, Frankel M, Aronsohn A, Cheng K, Forberg K, Marcinkus M, Naccache SN, Dawson G, Brennan C, Jensen DM, Hackett JJ, Chiu CY (2015) Discovery of a novel human pegivirus in blood associated with hepatitis C virus co-infection. PLoS Pathog 11:e1005325
Chandriani S, Skewes-Cox P, Zhong W, Ganem DE, Divers TJ, Van Blaricum AJ, Tennant BC, Kistler AL (2013) Identification of a previously undescribed divergent virus from the Flaviviridae family in an outbreak of equine serum hepatitis. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 110:E1407–E1415
Chen F, Knutson TP, Braun E, Jiang Y, Rossow S, Marthaler DG (2019) Semi-quantitative duplex RT-PCR reveals the low occurrence of Porcine Pegivirus and Atypical Porcine Pestivirus in diagnostic samples from the United States. Transbound Emerg Dis 66:1420–1425
Kapoor A, Simmonds P, Cullen JM, Scheel TKH, Medina JL, Giannitti F, Nishiuchi E, Brock KV, Burbelo PD, Rice CM, Lipkin WI (2013a) Identification of a pegivirus (GB virus-like virus) that infects horses. J Virol 87:7185–7190
Kapoor A, Simmonds P, Scheel TKH, Hjelle B, Cullen JM, Burbelo PD, Chauhan LV, Duraisamy R, Sanchez Leon M, Jain K, Vandegrift KJ, Calisher CH, Rice CM, Lipkin WI (2013b) Identification of rodent homologs of hepatitis C virus and pegiviruses. MBio 4:e213–e216
Kennedy J, Pfankuche VM, Hoeltig D, Postel A, Keuling O, Ciurkiewicz M, Baumgartner W, Becher P, Baechlein C (2019) Genetic variability of porcine pegivirus in pigs from Europe and China and insights into tissue tropism. Sci Rep 9:8174
Leary TP, Desai SM, Erker JC, Mushahwar IK (1997) The sequence and genomic organization of a GB virus A variant isolated from captive tamarins. J Gen Virol 78:2307–2313
Lei D, Ye Y, Lin K, Zhang F, Huang D, Li K, Yuan W, Wu Q, Ding Z, Wang L, Song D, Tang Y (2019) Detection and genetic characterization of porcine pegivirus from pigs in China. Virus Genes 55:248–252
Quan P, Firth C, Conte JM, Williams SH, Zambrana-Torrelio CM, Anthony SJ, Ellison JA, Gilbert AT, Kuzmin IV, Niezgoda M, Osinubi MOV, Recuenco S, Markotter W, Breiman RF, Kalemba L, Malekani J, Lindblade KA, Rostal MK, Ojeda-Flores R, Suzan G, Davis LB, Blau DM, Ogunkoya AB, Alvarez Castillo DA, Moran D, Ngam S, Akaibe D, Agwanda B, Briese T, Epstein JH, Daszak P, Rupprecht CE, Holmes EC, Lipkin WI (2013) Bats are a major natural reservoir for hepaciviruses and pegiviruses. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 110:8194–8199
Simmonds P, Becher P, Bukh J, Gould EA, Meyers G, Monath T, Muerhoff S, Pletnev A, Rico-Hesse R, Smith DB, Stapleton JT, Consortium IR (2017) ICTV virus taxonomy profile: Flaviviridae. J Gen Virol 98:2–3
Simons JN, Pilot-Matias TJ, Leary TP, Dawson GJ, Desai SM, Schlauder GG, Muerhoff AS, Erker JC, Buijk SL, Chalmers ML (1995) Identification of two flavivirus-like genomes in the GB hepatitis agent. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 92:3401–3405
Smith DB, Becher P, Bukh J, Gould EA, Meyers G, Monath T, Muerhoff AS, Pletnev A, Rico-Hesse R, Stapleton JT, Simmonds P (2016) Proposed update to the taxonomy of the genera hepacivirus and pegivirus with in the Flaviviridae family. J Gen Virol 97:2894–2907
Xie Y, Wang X, Su D, Feng J, Wei L, Cai W, Li J, Lin S, Yan H, He D (2019) Detection and genetic characterization of atypical porcine pestivirus in piglets with congenital tremors in Southern China. Front Microbiol 10:1406
Yang C, Wang L, Shen H, Zheng Y, Bade SA, Gauger PC, Chen Q, Zhang J, Guo B, Yoon K, Harmon KM, Main RG, Li G (2018) Detection and genetic characterization of porcine pegivirus in pigs in the United States. Transbound Emerg Dis 65:618–626
Acknowledgements
This work was supported by Key Laboratory of Zoonosis Prevention and Control of Guangdong Province, the Guangdong Province Pig Industrial System Innovation Team (Grant Number 2018LM1103), the National Key Basic Research Program (Grant Number 2016YFD0500606), the Construction of the First Class Universities (Subject) and Special Development Guidance Special Fund (Grant Number K5174960), and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities, SCUT (Grant Number D2170320).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Contributions
YX designed the experiments, drafted and revised the manuscript. XW analyzed the data and generated phylogenetic trees. GL, and GS completed the collection of samples. JF, LW, and YC performed the experiments. HY and DH conceived the study and finalized the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final version of the manuscript.
Corresponding authors
Ethics declarations
Conflict of interest
The authors declare no conflict of interest.
Animal and Human Rights Statement
All institutional and National guidelines about the use of animals were followed.
Electronic supplementary material
Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Xie, Y., Wang, X., Feng, J. et al. The Prevalence, Genetic Characterization, and Evolutionary Analysis of Porcine Pegivirus in Guangdong, China. Virol. Sin. 36, 52–60 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12250-020-00240-3
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12250-020-00240-3