title: Isolation and characterization of a variant porcine epidemic diarrhea virus in China.
abstract: An outbreak of diarrhea in pigs started in Guangdong, South China in January 2011. Cases were characterized by watery diarrhea, dehydration and vomiting, with 80-100% morbidity and 50-90% mortality in suckling piglets. The causative agent of the diarrhea was ultimately identified as porcine epidemic diarrhea virus (PEDV). In this study, we isolated a PEDV strain designated CHGD-01 from piglet intestines using Vero cell cultures, and its specific cytopathic effects were confirmed in susceptible cells by direct immunofluorescence testing and electron microscopy. The complete genome of CHGD-01 was shown to be 28,035 nucleotides in length, with a similar structure to that of PEDV reference strains. Phylogenetic analyses based on the whole genome revealed that CHGD-01 shared nucleotide sequence identities of 98.2-98.4% with two other Chinese isolates reported in the same year, thus constituting a new cluster. Amino acid sequence analysis based on individual virus genes indicated a close relationship between the spike protein gene of CHGD-01 and the field strain KNU0802 in Korea. Its ORF3 and nucleoprotein genes, however, were divergent from all other sequenced PEDV isolate clusters and therefore formed a new group, suggesting a new variant PEDV isolate in China. Further studies will be required to determine the immunogenicity and pathogenicity of this new variant.
authors.affiliation: Guangdong Wen's Group Academy, Guangdong Wen's Foodstuffs Group Co, Ltd, Xinxing, Guangdong, 527400, China.
authors.forename: Yongfei
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Pan
authors.forename: Xiaoyan
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Tian
authors.forename: Wei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Qingfeng
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.forename: Dongdong
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Yingzuo
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Bi
authors.forename: Feng
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Yanhua
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Song
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D018352:Coronavirus Infections / Q000662:veterinary; D003588:Cytopathogenic Effect, Viral; D005814:Genes, Viral; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010802:Phylogeny; D053485:Porcine epidemic diarrhea virus / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics* / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D016415:Sequence Alignment; D013552:Swine; D013553:Swine Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000821:virology