Porcine Astrovirus Infection in Brains of Pigs in Korea

• Published in: Viruses Vol. 16; no. 9; p. 1372
• Main Authors: Park, Jun-Soo, Jeong, Chang-Gi, Chae, Su-Beom, Yang, Myeon-Sik, Oh, Byungkwan, Lee, Sook-Young, Oem, Jae-Ku
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland MDPI AG 28.08.2024; MDPI
• Subjects: Animals; Astroviridae Infections - veterinary; Astroviridae Infections - virology; astrovirus; Brain - pathology; Brain - virology; Brief Report; Causes of; Central nervous system; Central nervous system diseases; coinfection; Diseases; Domestic animals; Encephalitis; Encephalomyelitis; Epidemics; Gastroenteritis; Genetic aspects; Genomes; Genotype; Genotypes; Gliosis; Hogs; Identification and classification; Infections; Mamastrovirus - classification; Mamastrovirus - genetics; Mamastrovirus - isolation & purification; Meningitis; Nervous system; neuro-invasive; Neurological diseases; Pathogens; Phylogenetics; Phylogeny; porcine; Republic of Korea - epidemiology; Respiratory diseases; RNA viruses; RNA-directed DNA polymerase; Swine; Swine Diseases - pathology; Swine Diseases - virology; Viruses; Republic of Korea; South Korea; United States > US; Germany; neuro-invasive; porcine; astrovirus; encephalitis; coinfection
• ISSN: 1999-4915; 1999-4915
• DOI: 10.3390/v16091372

Recently, neurological diseases associated with astroviruses (AstVs) have been reported in pigs, ruminants, minks, and humans. In 2017, neuro-invasive porcine astrovirus (Ni-PAstV) 3 was detected in the central nervous system (CNS) of pigs with encephalomyelitis in Hungary and the USA. In the process of diagnosing domestic pigs exhibiting neurological signs, histopathologic lesions of non-suppurative encephalomyelitis with meningitis, neuronal vacuolation, and gliosis were detected, and PAstV was identified using reverse transcriptase PCR in CNS samples of four pigs in three farms from August to September in 2020, South Korea. Subsequently, the ORF2 region was successfully acquired from three brain samples, facilitating subsequent analysis. Four genotypes of PAstV (PAstV1, 3, 4, and 5) were detected, and coinfection of PAstV with multiple genotypes was observed in brain samples. This is the first study to report Ni-PAstV infection in pigs in South Korea.