Detection of St-Valerien-like viruses in swine, Italy.
St-Valerien-like viruses are newly recognized porcine caliciviruses recently detected in Canadian swine farms. These viruses that appeared genetically closest to the Tulane non-human primate virus and noroviruses (NoVs), may represent members of a potential new genera within the Caliciviridae family. To date, there are no information on the epidemiology of these novel caliciviruses in other continents. In this study, 264 faecal samples collected from asymptomatic adult pigs were screened by RT-PCR using St-Valerien-like specific primers. Porcine caliciviruses, resembling St-Valerien-like viruses were identified in five animals. The 3' end of the genome of one of these strains, 25A/ITA, was determined, revealing close genetic relatedness to the newly discovered St-Valerien-like caliciviruses, identified in swine in Canada. The findings of this investigation demonstrate that St-Valerien-like viruses are not geographically restricted, since they were identified outside the North American continent where there were first signalled.
Department of Scienze Biomediche Comparate, University of Teramo, Teramo, Italy. bdimartino@unite.it
Barbara
B
Di Martino
Vito
V
Martella
Federica
F
Di Profio
Chiara
C
Ceci
Fulvio
F
Marsilio
D000818:Animals; D002139:Caliciviridae / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification; D017250:Caliciviridae Infections / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000662:veterinary* / Q000821:virology; D017931:DNA Primers; D005243:Feces / Q000821:virology*; D007558:Italy / Q000453:epidemiology; D010802:Phylogeny; D012367:RNA, Viral / Q000235:genetics; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D017423:Sequence Analysis, RNA; D013552:Swine / Q000821:virology*; D013553:Swine Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000821:virology
D017931:DNA Primers; D012367:RNA, Viral