Porcine kobuvirus from pig stool in Korea

Abstract

To survey for porcine kobuvirus infection, a total of 119 pig fecal samples in Korea were collected from three pig farms with good breeding facilities in three provinces. Forty-three (36.1%) of the fecal samples tested were positive for porcine kobuvirus. In addition, porcine epidemic diarrhea virus (PEDV) and transmissible gastroenteritis virus (TGEV) infections were not identified in any of the fecal samples, but porcine group A rotavirus (GAR) infection was identified in 11.8% (14/119) of the samples. Nucleotide sequence analysis showed sharp divergence between the five major Korean lineages by the Neighbor-joining method, and each of these lineages had high levels of bootstrap support (99 or 100%). Porcine kobuvirus is widespread in Korea regardless of the clinical condition (diarrhea or non-diarrhea). Piglets under the age of 3 weeks were the main age group infected with porcine kobuvirus, which is the general case for other species of kobuviruses.