title: Molecular investigations on the prevalence and viral load of enteric viruses in pigs from five European countries.
abstract: Enteric viral infections in pigs may cause diarrhea resulting in ill-thrift and substantial economic losses. This study reports the enteric infections with porcine astrovirus type 4 (PAstV4), porcine group A rotavirus (GARV), porcine group C rotavirus (GCRV), porcine circovirus type 2 (PCV2) and porcine kobuvirus (PKoV) in 419 pigs, comprising both healthy and diarrheic animals, from 49 farms in five European countries (Austria, Germany, Hungary, Spain and Sweden). Real-time RT-PCR assays were developed to test fecal samples and to compare the prevalence and viral load in relation to health status, farms of origin and age groups. The results showed that PAstV4 (70.4%) was the dominant virus species, followed by PKoV (56.7%), PCV2 (42.2%), GCRV (3%) and GARV (0.9%). Diarrheic pigs had a higher viral load of PAstV4 in the nursery and growing-finishing groups. Rotaviruses were mainly detected in diarrheic pigs, whereas PCV2 was more often detected in clinically healthy than in diarrheic pigs, suggesting that most PCV2 infections were subclinical. PAstV4, PCV2 and PKoV were considered ubiquitous in the European pig livestock and co-infections among them were frequent, independently of the disease status, in contrast to a low prevalence of classical rotavirus infections.
authors.affiliation: College of Veterinary Medicine, Inner Mongolia Agricultural University, Key Laboratory of Clinical Diagnosis and Treatment Technology in Animal Disease, Ministry of Agriculture, Hohhot, China; National Veterinary Institute (SVA), Uppsala, Sweden.
authors.forename: Weiguang
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.affiliation: National Veterinary Institute (SVA), Uppsala, Sweden.
authors.forename: Karin
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Ullman
authors.affiliation: National Veterinary Institute (SVA), Uppsala, Sweden.
authors.forename: Vinay
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Chowdry
authors.affiliation: Prophyl Ltd, Mohács, Hungary.
authors.forename: Márta
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Reining
authors.affiliation: Prophyl Ltd, Mohács, Hungary.
authors.forename: Zsófia
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Benyeda
authors.affiliation: National Veterinary Institute (SVA), Uppsala, Sweden.
authors.forename: Claudia
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Baule
authors.affiliation: National Veterinary Institute (SVA), Uppsala, Sweden.
authors.forename: Mikael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Juremalm
authors.affiliation: National Veterinary Institute (SVA), Uppsala, Sweden.
authors.forename: Per
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Wallgren
authors.affiliation: University Clinic for Swine, Department for Farm Animals and Veterinary Public Health, University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna, Austria.
authors.forename: Lukas
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Schwarz
authors.affiliation: College of Veterinary Medicine Northwest A&F University, Shaanxi, China.
authors.forename: Enmin
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.affiliation: Centre de Recerca en Sanitat Animal (CReSA)-Institut de Recerca i Tecnologia Agroalimentàries (IRTA), Barcelona, Spain.
authors.forename: Sonia Pina
authors.initials: SP
authors.lastname: Pedrero
authors.affiliation: University Clinic for Swine, Department for Farm Animals and Veterinary Public Health, University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna, Austria.
authors.forename: Isabel
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Hennig-Pauka
authors.affiliation: Centre de Recerca en Sanitat Animal (CReSA)-Institut de Recerca i Tecnologia Agroalimentàries (IRTA), Barcelona, Spain; Departament de Sanitat i Anatomia Animals, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), Barcelona, Spain.
authors.forename: Joaquim
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Segales
authors.affiliation: National Veterinary Institute (SVA), Uppsala, Sweden. Electronic address: Lihong.Liu@sva.se.
authors.forename: Lihong
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Liu
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D004771:Enteroviruses, Porcine / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D005060:Europe / Q000453:epidemiology; D015995:Prevalence; D012367:RNA, Viral / Q000235:genetics; D060888:Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction / Q000662:veterinary; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction / Q000662:veterinary; D013552:Swine; D013553:Swine Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000821:virology*; D019562:Viral Load
chemical_list: D012367:RNA, Viral
keywords: Astrovirus; Diarrhea; Infection; Kobuvirus; Metagenomics; PCV2; Pig; Prevalence; Rotavirus; Viral load