Porcine Astrovirus Type 3 in Central Nervous System of Swine with Polioencephalomyelitis

Abstract

Using next-generation sequencing, we identified and genetically characterized a porcine astrovirus type 3 strain found in tissues from the central nervous system of 1 piglet and 3 sows with neurologic signs and nonsuppurative polioencephalomyelitis. Further studies are needed to understand the potential for cross-species transmission and clinical impact.

Keywords: Mamastrovirus; Sus scrofa; astrovirus; central nervous system; high-throughput nucleotide sequencing; meningitis/encephalitis; neurologic disease; pigs; polioencephalomyelitis; swine; viruses; zoonoses.

Video

Posterior paralysis and tachypnea in pig infected with porcine astrovirus type 3.

Figure

Phylogenetic trees of capsid protein (A), RNA-dependent RNA polymerase protein (B), and whole-genome nucleotide (C) sequences of a PoAstV type 3 strain (PoAstV3/USA/IA/7023/2017, filled circle) from central nervous system tissues of sows with neurologic signs and histopathologic lesions compatible with neurotropic viral infection compared with 66 reference viruses available in GenBank (accession numbers shown in parentheses), which came from multiple animal species (as indicated). We performed alignment using the Muscle model and constructed phylogenetic trees using the neighbor-joining method in MEGA6 (http://www.megasoftware.net). Virus types are labeled. AstV, astrovirus; PoAstV, porcine astrovirus. Scale bars indicate nucleotide substitutions per site.