title: Survival of Porcine teschovirus as a surrogate virus on pork chops during storage at 2°C.
abstract: Due to the lack of an efficient cultivation system, little is known about the stability and inactivation of hepatitis E virus (HEV). In addition, there is a lack of information on which cultivable virus(es) are suitable as model or surrogate viruses for HEV. Murine norovirus (MNV) and F-RNA coliphage MS2 are potential surrogates and F-RNA coliphages are a potential indicator for enteric viruses. However, the numbers of F-RNA coliphages excreted by swine are relatively low. In contrast, Porcine teschovirus (PTV) is cultivable and is excreted abundantly. PTV is readily detected on swine carcasses and the potential of PTV as a viral indicator of fecal contamination on hog carcasses is currently being explored, however, there is no information on the environmental stability of PTV. The survival of PTV was determined on vacuum packaged pork chops during storage at 2°C using cultivation and molecular techniques and compared to published data on the survival of MNV and MS2 under similar conditions. Viable PTV was reduced by ≥1.8log units compared to a reduction of 0.6 log genomic copies after 7weeks. The viability data indicates that PTV is less stable than MS2 and MNV during storage at 2°C whereas similar reductions in genomic copies were observed for all 3 viruses. This study provides data on the survival of PTV on pork and insight on the potential of PTV as a surrogate for HEV in the pork processing chain.
authors.affiliation: Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Lacombe Research Centre, 6000 C & E Trail, Lacombe, Alberta T4L 1W1, Canada. Electronic address: Tineke.Jones@agr.gc.ca.
authors.forename: T 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: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Muehlhauser
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D003080:Cold Temperature; D005511:Food Handling; D005516:Food Microbiology; D008460:Meat / Q000821:virology*; D050296:Microbial Viability; D013552:Swine; D052700:Teschovirus / Q000502:physiology*; D013997:Time Factors
keywords: F-RNA coliphage MS2; Murine norovirus; Porcine teschovirus; Pork; Surrogate virus; Survival