Molecular detection of Porcine cytomegalovirus (PCMV) in wild boars from Northeastern Patagonia, Argentina

Krabben

et al. 2022

Sci Rep

Porcine cytomegalovirus (PCMV), that is actually a porcine roseolovirus (PRV), is a common herpesvirus in domestic pigs and wild boars. In xenotransplantation, PCMV/PRV has been shown to significantly reduce the survival time of pig kidneys and hearts in preclinical trials with different non-human primates. Furthermore, PCMV/PRV has been transmitted in the first pig to human heart xenotransplantation and contributed to the death of the patient. Although transmitted to the recipient, there is no evidence that PCMV/PRV can infect primate cells including human cells. PCMV/PRV is closely related to the human herpesviruses 6 and 7, and only distantly related to the human CMV (HCMV). Antiviral drugs used for the treatment of HCMV are less effective against PCMV/PRV. However, there are well described strategies to eliminate the virus from pig facilities. In order to detect the virus and to eliminate it, highly sensitive detection methods and the knowledge of how, where and when to screen the donor pigs is required. Here, a comparative testing of organs from pigs of different ages using polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-based and immunological methods was performed. Testing young piglets, PCMV/PRV was detected effectively by PCR in blood, bronchoalveolar lavage fluid, tonsils and heart. In adult animals, detection by PCR was not successful in most cases, because the virus load was below the detection limit or the virus was in its latent stage. Therefore, detection of antibodies against selected recombinant proteins corresponding to epitopes detected by nearly all infected animals in a Western blot assay is advantageous. By contrast, immunological testing is not beneficial in young animals as piglets might have PCMV/PRV-specific antibodies obtained from their infected mother via the colostrum. Using a thoughtful combination of PCR-based and immunological methods, detection of PCMV/PRV in donor pigs for xenotransplantation is feasible and a controlled elimination of the virus by early weaning or other methods is possible.

mentioning

confidence: 99%

How, where and when to screen for porcine cytomegalovirus (PCMV) in donor pigs for xenotransplantation

Halecker

Krabben

et al. 2022

Sci Rep

“…In Argentina, Northeastern Patagonia (Buenos Aires and Río Negro Provinces), PCMV/PRV screening using a nested-PCR assay on tonsil tissues from 62 free-living wild boars showed an overall infection rate of about 56% [49]. A signi cant higher level (nearly 90%) was determined for animals less than 6 months old.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In contrast, the seroprevalence of PCMV/PRV in pigs from the Hunan province, China, was much higher, 96% (482/500), with the highest prevalence found in breeding sows (97%) [56]. The comparison of different study results is challenging, since different populations, tissues and methods were used for screening, either tonsils or tonsil swabs [8,49] or sera [9, 10, this study]. When we analyzed 30 German slaughterhouse pigs, 52% were positive in a real-time PCR and 83% were positive in a Western blot assay using the same fragment (R2) of the gB protein of PCMV/PRV as used here [10].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Prevalence of the porcine cytomegalovirus virus (PCMV), a porcine roseolovirus, in wild boars in Italy and Germany

Franzo

Menandro

et al. 2022

Preprint

Porcine cytomegalovirus (PCMV), which is a porcine roseolovirus (PRV), closely related to the human herpesviruses 6 and 7, is common among commercial pigs. PCMV/PRV was shown to be important in xenotransplantation because transmission of PCMV/PRV in preclinical trials transplanting pig organs into non-human primates was associated with a significantly reduced survival of the xenotransplants. PCMV/PRV was also transmitted in the worldwide first pig heart transplantation into a human patient and obviously contributed to the death of the patient. The prevalence of PCMV/PRV in wild boars is largely unknown. Here, we screen wild boars from several places in Northern Italy and Germany to evaluate the prevalence of PCMV/PRV using PCR-based and Western blot assays. By Western blot analysis 65% and 82% of the Italian and German wild boars were found to be PCMV/PRV-positive, while 36% and 60% tested positive by real-time PCR, respectively. These data indicate that the prevalence in German wild boars is higher compared with the Italian and that the Western blot assay is a more robust tool to detect a PCMV/PRV infection. This data also indicates that pigs generated for xenotransplantation should be secured from contact with materials from wild boars besides commercial pigs .

“…In a random sampling from a German slaughterhouse nearly all animals were tested positive [14]. PCMV/PRV was also found in wild boars [15,16]. PCMV/PVR is mostly acquired early in life and infection results in seroconversion and lifelong latent infection [11].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

How, where and when to screen for porcine cytomegalovirus (PCMV) in donor pigs for xenotransplantation

Halecker

Krabben

et al. 2022

Preprint

Porcine cytomegalovirus (PCMV) that is actually a porcine roseolovirus (PRV) is a common herpesvirus in domestic pigs and wild boars. In xenotransplantation, PCMV/PRV has been shown to significantly reduce the survival time of pig kidneys and hearts in preclinical trials with different non-human primates. Furthermore, PCMV/PRV has been transmitted in the first pig to human heart xenotransplantation and contributed to the death of the patient. Although transmitted to the recipient, there is no evidence that PCMV/PRV can infect primate cells including human cells. Since PCMV/PRV is a roseolovirus closely related to the human herpesviruses 6 and 7, antiviral drugs against human CMV are not effective. However, there are well described strategies to eliminate the virus from pig facilities. In order to detect the virus and to eliminate it, highly sensitive detection methods and the knowledge, how, where and when to screen the donor pigs is required. Here, a comparative testing of different organs from pigs of different age using PCR-based and immunological methods was performed. Testing young piglets, PCMV/PRV was well detected by PCR in blood, bronchoalveolar lavage fluid, tonsils and heart. In adult animals, detection by PCR was in most cases not successful, because the virus was in latency. Therefore, detection of antibodies against selected recombinant proteins corresponding to epitopes detected by nearly all infected animals in a Western blot assays is advantageous. Immunological testing on the other hand is not beneficial in young animals. Piglets might have PCMV/PRV-specific antibodies that they obtained from the infected mother by the colostrum. Using a thoughtful combination of PCR-based and immunological methods, detection of PCMV/PRV in donor pigs for xenotransplantation is feasible and a controlled elimination of the virus by early weaning or other methods is possible.