Porcine Astrovirus Infection in Brains of Pigs in Korea
Jun-Soo Park,
Chang-Gi Jeong,
Su-Beom Chae,
Myeon-Sik Yang,
Byungkwan Oh,
Sook-Young Lee,
Jae-Ku Oem
Affiliations
Jun-Soo Park
Laboratory of Veterinary Infectious Disease, College of Veterinary Medicine, Jeonbuk National University, Iksan 54596, Republic of Korea
Chang-Gi Jeong
Laboratory of Veterinary Infectious Disease, College of Veterinary Medicine, Jeonbuk National University, Iksan 54596, Republic of Korea
Su-Beom Chae
Laboratory of Veterinary Infectious Disease, College of Veterinary Medicine, Jeonbuk National University, Iksan 54596, Republic of Korea
Myeon-Sik Yang
Department of Companion and Laboratory Animal Science, Kongju National University, Yesan-eup, Yesan 32439, Republic of Korea
Byungkwan Oh
Laboratory of Veterinary Pathology, Biosafety Research Institute, College of Veterinary Medicine, Jeonbuk National University, Iksan 54596, Republic of Korea
Sook-Young Lee
Division of Life Sciences, Korea Polar Research Institute, Incheon 21990, Republic of Korea
Jae-Ku Oem
Laboratory of Veterinary Infectious Disease, College of Veterinary Medicine, Jeonbuk National University, Iksan 54596, Republic of Korea
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.
