Current Status and Challenge of Pseudorabies Virus Infection in China

Abstract

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.

Serological Investigation and Genetic Characteristics of Pseudorabies Virus in Hunan Province of China From 2016 to 2020

“…Recently, we collected data reported from 2011 to 2020 and found that the overall seropositive rate of PRV-gE was 29.87% (76,553/256,326) in China ( 13 ). PRV prevalence in pigs varied in different regions in China.…”

“…PRV strains are divided into two genotypes according to their genetic characteristics. Most PRV isolates from China and other countries in Asia are classified into genotype II, while the prevalent PRV strains in Europe and America belong to genotype I ( 13 ). The present results showed that PRV classical strains were also prevalent in pig herds in Hunan province.…”

“…However, PRV-triggering diseases have frequently been documented in Bartha-K61-immunized swine populations in China since late 2011 ( 10 , 11 ). Molecular analysis revealed that the causative agents were identified as PRV variants, which have high genetic variations in some antigenic regions (as gC, gD , and gE ) compared to the classic PRV strains ( 12 , 13 ).…”

Meclizine Inhibits Pseudorabies Virus Replication by Interfering With Virus Entry and Release

“…PRV, an enveloped and double-stranded linear DNA virus, is a member of the Herpesviridae family ( Sun et al, 2016 ). It was also called Aujeszky’s disease virus (ADV), which causes fever, itching (except pigs), and encephalomyelitis in many livestock and wild animals ( Müller et al, 2011 ; Tan et al, 2021 ). PRV can infect pigs of different ages.…”

“…PRV can infect pigs of different ages. The clinical signs of infected pigs were fever, diarrhea, vomiting, nervous system disorders, with high mortality for newborn piglets, nonsignificant symptoms for adult pigs, abortion, stillbirth and respiratory symptoms for sows, and reproductive disorder for boars ( Tan et al, 2021 ). Recently, it has been reported that PRV infects and causes human endophthalmitis or encephalitis, which highlights the potential threat of this pathogen to public health ( Wong et al, 2019 ; Yang et al, 2019 ; Liu et al, 2020 ).…”