title: Prevalence of porcine endogenous retroviruses in domestic, minature, and genetically modified pigs in Japan.
abstract: The present study examined the prevalence of porcine endogenous retroviruses (PERV) in pigs available in Japan using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) with primers specific for PERV-A, PERV-B, and PERV-C and for the full-length 5' to 3' long terminal repeat and using PCR-Southern blotting with env A-, env B-, env C-, and pol/pro-specific probes. All 376 pigs tested--Berkshire (B), Landrace (L), Duroc (D), Large White (W), miniature, and genetically modified triple-cross breed (LWD)--harbored both PERV-A and PERV-B genes. However, the prevalence of PERV-C differed among pigs: LWD, miniature, B, D, W, and L pigs were 100% (36/36), 83% (5/6), 68% (129/191), 52% (26/50), 21% (9/43), and 16% (8/50), respectively. These results show that W and L pigs may be preferable as xenotransplantation donors, because they may not produce human-tropic replication-competent hybrids of PERV-A and PERV-C.
authors: Animal Engineering Research Institute, Midorigahara, Ibaraki, Japan. t.fujimura@nipponham.co.jp
authors: T
authors: T
authors: Fujimura
authors: S
authors: S
authors: Miyagawa
authors: Y
authors: Y
authors: Takahagi
authors: T
authors: T
authors: Shigehisa
authors: H
authors: H
authors: Murakami
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D030801:Animals, Genetically Modified / Q000821:virology; D017931:DNA Primers; D004279:DNA, Viral / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification; D020077:Endogenous Retroviruses / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D006801:Humans; D007564:Japan / Q000453:epidemiology; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D015995:Prevalence; D012192:Retroviridae Infections / Q000453:epidemiology*; D012449:Safety; D013552:Swine / Q000821:virology; D013553:Swine Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000821:virology*; D013556:Swine, Miniature / Q000821:virology; D014183:Transplantation, Heterologous
chemical_list: D017931:DNA Primers; D004279:DNA, Viral