Pseudorabies (PR), also called Aujeszky’s disease, is a highly infectious disease caused by pseudorabies virus (PRV). Without specific host tropism, PRV can infect a wide variety of mammals, including pig, sheep, cattle, etc., thereby causing severe clinical symptoms and acute death. PRV was firstly reported in China in 1950s, while outbreaks of emerging PRV variants have been documented in partial regions since 2011, leading to significant economic losses in swine industry. Although scientists have been devoting to the design of diagnostic approaches and the development of vaccines during the past years, PR remains a vital infectious disease widely prevalent in Chinese pig industry. Especially, its potential threat to human health has also attracted the worldwide attention. In this review, we will provide a summary of current understanding of PRV in China, mainly focusing on PRV history, the existing diagnosis methods, PRV prevalence in pig population and other susceptible mammals, molecular characteristics, and the available vaccines against its infection. Additionally, promising agents including traditional Chinese herbal medicines and novel inhibitors that may be employed to treat this viral infection, are also discussed.

A Getah virus (GETV) outbreak occurred in a swine farm in Hunan, China, between June and July 2017. Approximately 200 piglets died 5-10 days after birth, and more than 150 pregnant sows had stillbirths or foetal mummies in this outbreak. GETV HuN1, isolated from the cerebrum of an infected piglet, shared a close evolutionary relationship with the Kochi/01/2005 strain, isolated from pigs in Japan. GETV was detected in the cerebral cortices of a dead foetus and in various organs of two infected piglets, thereby demonstrating that GETV can be transmitted through the placenta to infected newborn piglets with multiple tissue tropisms. Seroepizootiologic investigation of GETV revealed that a wide infection of GETV had been persisting in the farm between June 1 and July 17. In conclusion, clinical and laboratory diagnostics of the diseased pigs in this outbreak were consistent with GETV being the causative agent. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first unequivocal report of GETV in pigs in China.

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Mycotoxins have the potential to enter the human food chain through carry-over of contaminants from feed into animal-derived products. The objective of the study was to develop a reliable and sensitive method for the analysis of 30 mycotoxins in animal feed and animal-derived food (meat, edible animal tissues, and milk) using liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS). In the study, three extraction procedures, as well as various cleanup procedures, were evaluated to select the most suitable sample preparation procedure for different sample matrices. In addition, timed and highly selective reaction monitoring on LC-MS/MS was used to filter out isobaric matrix interferences. The performance characteristics (linearity, sensitivity, recovery, precision, and specificity) of the method were determined according to Commission Decision 2002/657/EC and 401/2006/EC. The established method was successfully applied to screening of mycotoxins in animal feed and animal-derived food. The results indicated that mycotoxin contamination in feed directly influenced the presence of mycotoxin in animal-derived food. Graphical abstract Multi-mycotoxin analysis of animal feed and animal-derived food using LC-MS/MS.

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