Brazilian strain of bovine respiratory coronavirus is derived from dual enteric and respiratory tropism

Abstract

ABSTRACT. Bovine coronavirus (BCoV) is a pathogen related to enteric and respiratory diseases in cattle worldwide. Enteric (BECoV) strains of BCoV are predominant in South America, and genetic investigations have been conducted to identify its relationship with isolates of respiratory origin (BRCoV). In this study, we used a BRCoV strain (BR-UEL11) derived from an outbreak of respiratory disease in feedlot cattle in southern Brazil, and compared the partial sequence of the polymorphic region of Spike (which was detected and sequenced by two distinct reverse transcription-polymerase chain reactions) with those of other BCoV strains. The phylogenetic relationship of BR-UEL11 with Brazilian BCoV, which is associated with calf diarrhea and winter dysentery (enteric, BECoV; respiratory, BRCoV), and classical reference prototypes was analyzed. The analysis showed that the BRCoV strains from Brazil clustered with a clade that was distinct from most isolates associated with calf diarrhea (BECoV) and ancestral prototype strains such as Mebus, Nebraska, and LYVB. Furthermore, the BRCoV strains from Brazil clustered with a clade that contained recent strains associated with winter dysentery, showing 98-99% nucleotide identity with those strains. These results suggested that the Brazilian BCoV evolved from being solely enteric to a dual enteric and respiratory tropic virus.

Bovine coronavirus in Uruguay: genetic diversity, risk factors and transboundary introductions from neighboring countries

“…No statistical differences were observed between BCoV frequency of detection and diarrhea when all age groups were analyzed together: 6.5% (17/263) in diarrheic and 10.8% (32/295) in non-diarrheic calves (p = 0.068), however, in the first week of calves' life, the BCoV detection rate was statistical higher in diarrheic 12.1% (7/58) than non-diarrheic 3.2% (3/92) calves (OR: 4.21, 95%CI: 1.04-16.99; p = 0.030). In the other age groups, the BCoV frequency was lower in diarrheic versus non-diarrheic calves: 3.9% (6/152) vs. 8.8% (6/68), 2.9% (1/34) vs. 15.2% (12/79), 14.3% (1/7) vs. 19.4% (6/31) and 12.5% (1/8) vs. 16.7% (2/12), in the second, third, and fourth week, and after the fourth week of life, respectively, but no statistically significant differences were observed.…”

“…Most of the differences in S1 occur between virulent and non-virulent strains [16]. The hypervariable S1 genomic region has been widely used to study the genetic variability and evolution of the virus, including the few studies on molecular characterization of BCoV strains conducted in the South American region [17][18][19].…”

Microbial diversity involved in the etiology of a bovine respiratory disease outbreak in a dairy calf rearing unit

“…The BCoV described in this BRD outbreak was the second report of this virus associated with respiratory symptoms in cattle in Brazil. The first case was detected in a beef cattle feedlot [46]. The role of BCoV in BRD has been recognized recently with the dual enteric and respiratory tropism of some strains [51].…”

“…However, a study conducted with a larger number of samples and herds found a higher bacterial frequency in diseased animals [15], this difference in our study may have been due to the small number of samples used. In Brazil, there are few reports about BRD, and these studies have focused on efforts to detect the involvement of respiratory tract organs by gross and microscopic lesions, serological evaluations, and characterization of specific pathogens [3,18,[21][22][23]35,36,40,46,47].…”

Molecular characterization of Brazilian wild-type strains of bovine respiratory syncytial virus reveals genetic diversity and a putative new subgroup of the virus

“…The main bacterial agents are Mannheimia haemolytica, Mycoplasma bovis, Pasteurella multocida, and Histophilus somni (Panciera and Confer 2010, Gershwin et al 2015. Bovine respiratory disease virus (BRSV), bovine viral diarrhea virus (BVDV), bovine alphaherpesvirus 1 (BoHV-1), bovine parainfluenza virus 3 (BPIV-3), and bovine coronavirus (BCoV) are the possible viral causes of BRD (Beuttemmuller et al 2017, Headley et al 2018). Among these microorganisms, BRSV is frequently associated with BRD (Apley 2006, Grissett et al 2015.…”