Identification of Natural Infections in Sheep/Goats with HoBi-like Pestiviruses in China

Abstract

The natural infections of HoBi-like pestiviruses in cattle have been reported in South America, Europe and Asia. In China, although the detections of HoBi-like pestivirus have been reported, the epidemiological investigation was limited. From January 2014 to October 2015, several flocks of sheep/goats in Henan province in central China suffered respiratory diseases which were recovered slowly after antibiotics treatment. To test whether it is the HoBi-like pestivirus caused this symptom, 49 serum samples and 22 nasal swabs were then collected for analysis by serology and RT-PCR. Serological result revealed that prevalence of pestivirus in small ruminants was 12.2% (6/49) in central China. Sequence analysis of partial 5'-UTR nucleotides of pestivirus-positive samples suggested that HoBi-like pestivirus might have circulated in sheep/goats of China for a period and have evolved into new genotype clusters. It is apparent that the study provides the molecular evidence of natural infections in goat/sheep species with HoBi-like pestiviruses in China.

HoBi-like is the most prevalent ruminant pestivirus in Northeastern Brazil

“…The phylogenetic tree obtained for the 5′UTR (Figure a) showed three well‐separated clusters corresponding to HoBi‐like viruses genetic groups a, c and d. All of the sequences obtained in this work were grouped into the genetic group “a” cluster. This cluster presented three branches corresponding to Th/04KhonKaen (GenBank accession number ) detected in Thailand (Ståhl et al., ); HN1507 (GenBank accession number ) detected in China (Shi et al., ); and the last branch contained strains detected in South America, Europe and China, as well as all the sequences reported herein. In general, the sequences obtained in this study were more closely related to previously reported strains than to each other.…”

“…The frequencies of active infections reported in this study were similar to a previous study conducted in Southern Brazil that found 0.36% pestivirus‐positive calves (Weber et al., ); however, the infection frequencies reported in the present study were lower than the 2.8% frequency reported in Belgium (Hanon et al., ). None of the small ruminant samples tested positive for pestivirus infection despite reports of natural infection of small ruminants with the bovine pestiviruses: BVDV‐1, BVDV‐2 and HoBi‐like viruses (Han et al., ; Kim et al., ; Shi et al., ; Vilcek, Nettleton, Paton, & Bélak, ).…”

“…BVDV-1, BVDV-2 and HoBi-like viruses (Han et al, 2016;Kim et al, 2006;Shi et al, 2016;Vilcek, Nettleton, Paton, & B elak, 1997).…”

“…St ahl et al, 2007); HN1507 (GenBank accession number KU563155.1) detected in China(Shi et al, 2016); and the last branch contained strains detected in South America, Europe and China, as well as all the sequences reported herein. In general, the sequences obtained in this study were more closely related to previously reported strains than to each other.…”

“…The causative agent can be one of the three recognized species within the family Flaviviridae, genus Pestivirus: Bovine Viral Diarrhea Virus type 1 (BVDV-1), BVDV-2, Border Disease Virus (BDV) (Simmonds et al, 2011) or one of the emerging putative pestivirus species. In particular, a putative species referred to as HoBi-like or BVDV-3 causes clinical signs similar to those caused by BVDV-1 and 2 infections in cattle and small ruminants (Decaro et al, 2011(Decaro et al, , 2014Liu, Xia, Wahlberg, Bel ak, & Baule, 2009;Shi et al, 2016;Weber et al, 2016).…”