title: Presence, viral load and characterization of Torque teno sus viruses in liver and pork chop samples at retail.
abstract: Torque teno viruses (TTV) are widespread in humans, swine as well as in several other animal species. In market ready swine, the reported prevalence ranges between 11% and 100%. Through a national retail sampling plan from the Canadian Integrated Program for Antimicrobial Resistance Surveillance (CIPARS) program, 283 and 599 liver and pork chop samples, respectively, were collected over a 12-month period from commercial establishments in 5 selected geographical regions of Canada to assess the presence of Torque teno sus viruses (TTSuVs) in these products. TTSuVs were detected in 97.9% of pork chops with viral loads ranging between 1×10(4) and 9.9×10(5) genomic copies (gc)/g and 98.6% of liver samples with viral loads ranging from 1×10(5) to 9.9×10(6) gc/g. A selection of 20 positive samples (10 pork chop and 10 liver) from the 5 geographical regions were further tested for the production, of a 305bp fragment for TTSuV1 and a 253bp fragment for TTSuV2 in the non-coding region. TTSuV1 was present in all 10 liver and 10 pork chops samples while TTSuV2 was detected in 10 liver and 9 pork chop samples. Two different TTSuV1 sequences were simultaneously detected from 5 of 20 samples and 2 different TTSuV2 sequences were detected from 6 of 19 samples. The omnipresence of TTSuVs in commercial pork samples may allow its use as a viral indicator to monitor the effectiveness of cleaning and disinfecting process in slaughtering, cutting, slicing and packaging facilities.
authors.affiliation: Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Food Research and Development Centre, 3600 Casavant Boulevard West, Saint-Hyacinthe, Québec, J2S 8E3, Canada.
authors.forename: Danielle
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Leblanc
authors.affiliation: Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Food Research and Development Centre, 3600 Casavant Boulevard West, Saint-Hyacinthe, Québec, J2S 8E3, Canada.
authors.forename: Alain
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Houde
authors.affiliation: Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Food Research and Development Centre, 3600 Casavant Boulevard West, Saint-Hyacinthe, Québec, J2S 8E3, Canada.
authors.forename: Marie-Josée
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Gagné
authors.affiliation: Health Canada, Health Products & Foods, Québec Region, 1001St Laurent West, Longueuil, Québec, J4K 1C7, Canada.
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Plante
authors.affiliation: Health Canada, Health Products & Foods, Québec Region, 1001St Laurent West, Longueuil, Québec, J4K 1C7, Canada.
authors.forename: Pascale
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Bellon-Gagnon
authors.affiliation: Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Lacombe Research Centre, 6000 C & E Trail, Lacombe, Alberta, T4L 1W1, Canada.
authors.forename: Tineke H
authors.initials: TH
authors.lastname: Jones
authors.affiliation: Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Lacombe Research Centre, 6000 C & E Trail, Lacombe, Alberta, T4L 1W1, Canada.
authors.forename: Victoria
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Muehlhauser
authors.affiliation: University of Guelph, Ontario Veterinary College, Guelph, Ontario, N1G 2W1, Canada.
authors.forename: Barbara
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Wilhelm
authors.affiliation: Laboratory for Foodborne Zoonoses, Public Health Agency of Canada, 160 Research Lane, Suite 103, Guelph, Ontario, N1G 5B2, Canada.
authors.forename: Brent
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Avery
authors.affiliation: Laboratory for Foodborne Zoonoses, Public Health Agency of Canada, 160 Research Lane, Suite 103, Guelph, Ontario, N1G 5B2, Canada.
authors.forename: Nicol
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Janecko
authors.affiliation: Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Food Research and Development Centre, 3600 Casavant Boulevard West, Saint-Hyacinthe, Québec, J2S 8E3, Canada. Electronic address: julie.brassard@agr.gc.ca.
authors.forename: Julie
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Brassard
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002170:Canada; D005814:Genes, Viral / Q000235:genetics; D008099:Liver / Q000821:virology*; D008460:Meat / Q000821:virology*; D010802:Phylogeny; D015995:Prevalence; D013552:Swine; D022783:Torque teno virus / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification / Q000502:physiology*; D019562:Viral Load
keywords: Pork chops; Pork livers; Retail meat; Torque teno sus virus