Pegivirus Infection in Domestic Pigs, Germany

Semi‐quantitative duplex RT ‐ PCR reveals the low occurrence of Porcine Pegivirus and Atypical Porcine Pestivirus in diagnostic samples from the United States

“…In horses, a pathogenic pegivirus ‘Theiler disease‐associated virus’ (TDAV) and non‐pathogenic equine pegivirus (EPgV) have been identified indicating not all strains of pegivirus are pathogenic (Kapoor et al., ; Smith, Chalmers, & Wedel, ; Sturgeon, ). The recent identifications of PPgV could be associated with pathogenesis, but a clear link of pathogenesis has not been established (Baechlein et al., ; Yang et al., ). The identification of PPgV in only two of the 10 serum samples suggests PPgV may not be the cause of clinical disease.…”

“…In this study, a duplex sqRT‐PCR was developed to determine the occurrence of PPgV and APPV infections in diagnostic samples from US swine farms, following the discovery of these pathogens using NGS. A sqRT‐PCR for PPgV has yet to be described (Baechlein et al., ; Yang et al., ), whereas a few sqRT‐PCRs are have been described for APPV (Arruda et al., ; Gatto et al., ; Postel et al., ). The duplex sqRT‐PCR had high analytical sensitivity and specificity, which can be used to screen a large number of samples.…”

“…Pegiviruses have been detected in North and South America, Africa, Asia and Europe, indicating global presence of this virus (Bailey et al., ; de Souza et al., ; N'Guessan et al., ; Thézé et al., ; Van Nguyen et al., ). In 2016, Porcine Pegiviruses (PPgV) were discovered in pigs from Germany using Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) of serum from asymptomatic animals, and subsequent PCR testing detected PPgV in 2.2% of serum samples (Baechlein et al., ). Recently, PPgV was identified in the US, and 15.1% of the screened samples were positive for PPgV (Yang et al., ).…”

Development of a reverse transcription-loop-mediated isothermal amplification (RT-LAMP) assay for the detection of porcine pegivirus

“…Pegiviruses are detected in diverse mammalian hosts including pigs, humans, horses, chimpanzees, bats, monkeys, and rodents (Yang et al, 2018). All known Pegiviruses have been classified into 11 species (A-K), and PPgV is a member of Pegivirus K. PPgV was first discovered in Germany in 2016 (Baechlein et al, 2016), and then reported in the United States in 2018 (Yang et al, 2018). In China, PPgV was first identified in Guangdong province (Lei et al, 2019), where vesicular diseases broke out in a swine farm in 2017.…”

“…In this study, a RT-LAMP assay was developed to monitor PPgV in pig populations. Compared to other diagnostic methods, such as conventional RT-PCR, nested RT-PCR, and qRT-PCR (Baechlein et al, 2016), RT-LAMP assay may eliminate a need for complex procedures and expensive instruments, which makes it suitable for poorly equipped laboratories and clinics (Lopez-Jimena et al, 2018).…”