The evidence of porcine hemagglutinating encephalomyelitis virus induced nonsuppurative encephalitis as the cause of death in piglets

Abstract

An acute outbreak of porcine hemagglutinating encephalomyelitis virus (PHEV) infection in piglets, characterized with neurological symptoms, vomiting, diarrhea, and wasting, occurred in China. Coronavirus-like particles were observed in the homogenized tissue suspensions of the brain of dead piglets by electron microscopy, and a wild PHEV strain was isolated, characterized, and designated as PHEV-CC14. Histopathologic examinations of the dead piglets showed characteristics of non-suppurative encephalitis, and some neurons in the cerebral cortex were degenerated and necrotic, and neuronophagia. Similarly, mice inoculated with PHEV-CC14 were found to have central nervous system (CNS) dysfunction, with symptoms of depression, arched waists, standing and vellicating front claws. Furthmore, PHEV-positive labeling of neurons in cortices of dead piglets and infected mice supported the viral infections of the nervous system. Then, the major structural genes of PHEV-CC14 were sequenced and phylogenetically analyzed, and the strain shared 95%–99.2% nt identity with the other PHEV strains available in GenBank. Phylogenetic analysis clearly proved that the wild strain clustered into a subclass with a HEV-JT06 strain. These findings suggested that the virus had a strong tropism for CNS, in this way, inducing nonsuppurative encephalitis as the cause of death in piglets. Simultaneously, the predicted risk of widespread transmission showed a certain variation among the PHEV strains currently circulating around the world. Above all, the information presented in this study can not only provide good reference for the experimental diagnosis of PHEV infection for pig breeding, but also promote its new effective vaccine development.

Detection of a novel circovirus PCV3 in pigs with cardiac and multi-systemic inflammation

“…A pathogenic role for the other viruses detected namely rotavirus A and porcine cytomegalovirus in case 1, porcine hemagglutinating encephalomyelitis virus in case 2, and equine hepacivirus in case 3 are unknown. Porcine hemagglutinating encephalomyelitis virus, an uncommon porcine infection, may also be associated with the mild neurological lesions seen in case 2 [42]. Equine hepacivirus may have been introduced by to the addition of equine sera to the heart tissue homogenate.…”

Genomic characterization and pathogenicity of a porcine hemagglutinating encephalomyelitis virus strain isolated in China

“…Porcine hemagglutinating encephalomyelitis virus (PHEV), which is roughly spherical, enveloped virus with a linear, capped, polyadenylated, single-stranded, positivepolarity, non-segmented RNA genome belongs to genus betacoronavirus of the family coronaviridae, and order nidoviralesorder [3]. It was first isolated as early as the 1960s as the causative agents of encephalomyelitis and/or vomiting and wasting disease (VMD) in piglets [4,5]. PHEV is a highly neurotropic virus that invades the CNS, causing neurological dysfunction in susceptible animals, including pigs, mice, and rats [6][7][8].…”

MiR-10a-5p-Mediated Syndecan 1 Suppression Restricts Porcine Hemagglutinating Encephalomyelitis Virus Replication

“…Porcine hemagglutinating encephalomyelitis virus (PHEV) is a neurotropic coronavirus and causes central nervous system (CNS) disorders and digestive illnesses in piglets (Li et al, 2016). PHEV is an enveloped positive strand RNA virus and coding five structural proteins, including small envelope (E), membrane (M), nucleocapsid (N), spike (S), and hemagglutinin-esterase protein (HE) (Dong et al, 2014).…”