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Full Scientific Reports |
Correspondence: 1Corresponding Author: Gordon M. Allan, Veterinary Sciences Division, Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute, Stony Road, Belfast BT4 3SD, Northern Ireland, e-mail: Gordon.allan{at}afbini.gov.uk
| Abstract |
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Key Words: Genogroups porcine circovirus postweaning multisystemic wasting syndrome (PMWS)
| Introduction |
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However, field observations and epizootiologic studies in the United Kingdom and Denmark strongly suggest that the spread of PMWS since 1999 has been consistent with the introduction of a "new" infectious agent into a naïve population.14,16 In contrast, a recent report on the PMWS epizootic in Sweden concluded that the spread pattern of the disease in that country does not support the introduction of a new infectious agent as the cause.15 Recent reports on genomic analysis of PCV2 viruses recovered from swine herds in 3 states in the United States that suffered from "sporadic cases of an acute onset disease of high mortality"4 detailed the identification of 2 distinct PCV2 genogroups circulating in that country. It is not known if these differences in the U.S. PCV2 isolates are truly significant in regard to disease severity. The present study reports the results of a temporal study on the prevalence of predominant PCV2 genogroups based on the criteria used for PCV2 isolates from U.S. pig herds. The PCV2 isolates were recovered from pigs on PMWS-affected and PMWS-nonaffected farms in Ireland and from samples from a farm in Northern Ireland collected at regular intervals from 2003 to 2005 that was initially diagnosed with PMWS in 2005.
| Materials and Methods |
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Identification of Pcv2 Open Reading Frame 2
The PCV2-specific DNA was amplified by PCR in duplicate 50 µl reactions with HotStarTaq Master Mixa in a DNA Engine DYAD thermal cycler.b The PCR consisted of a single hot start step of 95°C followed by 40 cycles of denaturation at 95°C for 30 sec, annealing at 55°C for 30 sec, and extension at 72°C for 1 min, followed by a final extension at 72°C for 10 min. Primers PCV2 open reading frame 2 (ORF2) forward (5'-GGT AAT ACT TAC AGC GCA CTT C-3') and PCV2 ORF2 reverse (5'-CCC CAT GCC CTG AAT TTC C-3') were used to generate an 814-bp amplicon.6
Confirmation of Amplicon Size and Purification for Sequencing
Amplified PCR products were electrophoresed in a commercially available 1.5% agarose gelc prepared in Tris-acetate-EDTA (TAE) bufferd for 1 hr at 100 V. Amplicon size was estimated by using a 100-bp DNA laddere and known PCV2 ORF2 amplification controls. Those corresponding amplicons were excised, and PCV2 ORF2 DNA was isolated by using the Wizard SV genomic DNA purification system.f
Sequence Analysis of Pcr Products
The PCV2 ORF2-specific DNA underwent cycle sequencing in triplicate with the previously mentioned gene specific primers (PCV2 ORF2 forward and PCV2 ORF2 reverse). Cycle sequencing was carried out with a BigDye Terminator v3.1 cycle sequencing kitg in a DNA Engine DYAD thermal cycler.b The cycle sequencing consisted of a single denaturation step of 96°C followed by 25 cycles of denaturation at 96°C for 10 sec, annealing at 50°C for 5 sec, and extension at 60°C for 4 min. Extension products were purified by using Performa DTR gel filtration cartridges,h according to the manufacturer's protocol. Cycle sequencing sample electrophoresis was carried out using an Applied Biosystems 3100 Genetic Analyzer.g Sequenced sample data were aligned and analyzed by using the ContigExpress and Align X applications included in Vector NTI software version 10.0e and GeneDoc (www.psc.edu/biomed/genedoc).
Grouping of Pcv2 Viruses
The PCV2 nucleic acid sequences detected in this study were genogrouped by using the predicted amino-acid sequence encoded by their ORF2 as described previously for PCV2 genomes recovered from pigs in the United States.4 In the U.S. study, the authors used cloning, sequence analysis, and alignments to show that the PCV2 ORF2 sequences generated from US samples could be classified into 2 distinct genomic groups. In-depth phylogenetic analysis of recovered complete genomic sequences from a previous study10 suggested that each of these groups could be further divided into divergent clusters. The authors of the U.S. study proposed that sequence analysis of the capsid gene alone was sufficient to categorize PCV2 isolates as either PCV2 group 1 (PCV2 G1) or PCV2 group 2 (PCV2 G2).4 The U.S. study proposed that the change in amino-acid sequence positions 86 to 91 found in the ORF2 (ORF2 nucleotide positions 256–273) from SNPRSV to TNKISI4 acts as a signature motif to distinguish PCV2 G1 viruses from PCV2 G2 viruses, respectively (Fig. 1). This PCV2 G1 and PCV G2 nomenclature was applied to PCV2 genomes recovered from pigs in Ireland and Northern Ireland and analyzed in the present study.
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| Results |
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Only PCV2 G2 genomes were recovered from samples taken on 4 PMWS-affected farms between 1997 and 2000. Of the pigs sampled on the 4 PMWS-affected farms in 2003, 1 set of samples from a single farm contained PCV2 G2 genome and samples from the 3 other farms contained PCV2 G1 genomes. All the PCV2 genomes recovered from pigs on the 12 PMWS-affected farms sampled from 2004 to 2006 were classified as PCV2 G1. The PCV2 G1 genome only was also recovered from pigs on all 6 of the PMWS-negative herds tested in this study from 2004 to 2006.
The Longitudinal Study
The results of genogrouping of the PCV2 genomes recovered from the 80 samples collected over 3 years from a single farm in Northern Ireland from 2003 to 2005 are summarized in Table 2. Initially (November 2003), the samples tested contained only PCV2 G2 genomes. However, in the samples tested from January 2004 to May 2004, both PCV2 G1 and PCV2 G2 genomes were detected. Occasionally, both PCV2 genogroups were detected in the same sample. With the exception of the 8 samples collected in December 2004 and 1 of the 4 samples collected in February 2005, which were shown to contain PCV2 G2 only, all other samples tested from June 2004 to 2005 were shown to contain only PCV2 G1. The predicted amino-acid sequence coded for ORF2 of the PCV2 G2 recovered throughout the study were 100% homologous, as were the predicted amino-acid sequences of the recovered PCV2 G1 genomes.
| Discussion |
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In the field study, it is of note that, of the first 6 farms confirmed as PMWS positive from 1997 to 2003, the PCV2 G1 genome was detected in pigs in only one of these (farm 5), which indicated that infection of pigs on a farm with this genogroup may not be essential for the development of clinical PMWS. However, it is also of note that farm 5 in this study had, by far, the worst disease scenario of the first 6 farms studied, with losses from PMWS that averaged in excess of 20% and peaked at 35%, perhaps indicating an increased virulence attributable to the PCV2 G1 virus, compared with the PCV2 viruses detected on the other 5 farms.
The results from this field study also showed that all the PCV2 genomes detected from pigs on PMWS-affected and PMWS-nonaffected farms in Ireland sampled after September 2003 fall within the PCV2 G1 genogroup. This includes samples collected from animals on 6 farms deemed to be PMWS negative.12 Overall, the findings reported in this study support those of the recent study in the United States on PCV2 genotypes currently circulating on diseased and nondiseased farms in that country.4 In the U.S. study, the authors suggest that PCV2 can be effectively genogrouped on the basis of the ORF2 coding sequence. In another separate study of PCV2 whole genome ORF1 and ORF2 sequences of 148 sequences from the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) nucleotide database, the authors also identified 2 main groups of PCV2 (1 and 2). No correlation between groups and health status or between groups and country of isolation was reported in this study, only a relationship between group and year of submission of the sequence. Interestingly, 92% of the sequences reported by these authors that belonged to PCV2 G1 were submitted to the NCBI database after 2003, whereas the majority (62%) of the sequences that belonged to PCV2 G2 were submitted before 2003. The authors suggested that this difference might indicate that PCV2 G1 is a more recent emerging virus than PCV2 G2 virus. This suggestion is consistent with the findings in the present study and the findings recently reported in the United States. The current study also supports the suggestion in the U.S. study that the amino-acid changes at amino-acid positions 86 to 91 in ORF2 from SNPRSV to TNKISI4 could be recognized as a signature motif to distinguish PCV2 G1 from PCV2 G2. In the previous study of 148 ORF2 sequences from the NCBI nucleotide database,10 the authors did note the equivalent nucleotide changes that correspond to the proposed signature motif and did suggest the ORF2 as a potential phylogenetic marker. However, these signature changes were included as part of 33 distinct nucleotide changes throughout the ORF2 and were not distinguished as a unique identifier of either PCV2 G1 or PCV2 G2.
It is interesting to note that, between 1997 and the spring of 2003, only a few sporadic outbreaks of PMWS, with losses of between 5% and 10%, were seen on farms in Northern Ireland. The severe epizootic of PMWS in Ireland occurred from the end of 2003 to 2006. PCV2 G1 virus was not found on 4 of the 5 farms sampled for this study before the disease epizootic. In addition, it is of interest that PCV2 G1 was recovered from all the farms sampled after August 2003, perhaps indicating that the introduction or emergence and spread of a new PCV2 genogroup in Ireland corresponds with the initiation of a severe epizootic of disease. However, the recovery of PCV2 G1 viruses from nondiseased herds during the disease epizootic argues against the emergence of a new, more virulent genogroup of PCV2 that was, in itself, responsible for this disease scenario.
The results of the longitudinal study on a single farm in Northern Ireland also support the hypothesis that the emergence of a new PCV2 G1 virus was not, on its own, responsible for the breakdown of this farm with PMWS. The first indication of PMWS on this farm was seen in August 2005 when pigs were found to contain lesions consistent with PMWS associated with massive amounts of PCV2. The longitudinal study carried out on fecal samples from this farm clearly showed that 2 PCV2 genogroups circulated on the farm. It is of interest that only PCV2 G2 virus was detected in the 8 samples taken from this farm on December 2004 and that the predicted amino-acid sequences of these PCV2 G2 viruses encoded for ORF2 were 100% homologous to the predicted amino-acid sequences of the PCV2 G2 viruses encoded for ORF2 previously recovered from the farm. This perhaps indicates a single source of reintroduction of this virus onto the farm. It is also interesting to note that the samples collected after this possible incursion and recovery of PCV2 G2 virus contained both PCV2 G1 and PCV2 G2, indicating the possible reintroduction of PCV2 G1 from a common outside source into the herd. It is currently unknown if the immunologic response in pigs to infection with a specific genogroup of PCV2 (PCV2 G1 and PCV2 G2) confers protection against infection with a heterologous genogroup. In vitro cross-neutralization studies and in vivo cross-protection studies are currently underway within the current group of authors to determine if this is or is not the case. Early results of viral neutralization assays indicate a degree of cross neutralization between PCV2 G1 and PCV2 G2 viruses when tested against polyclonal rabbit hyperimmune antisera that would suggest at least a partial immune resistance to heterologous challenge (F. McNeilly unpublished data). All the samples taken from this farm from May 2005 onwards were shown to contain PCV2 G1 virus only, and the predicted amino-acid sequences of these PCV2 G1 viruses encoded for ORF2 recovered from the farm when PMWS occurred were 100% homologous to the predicted amino-acid sequences of the PCV2 G1 viruses encoded for ORF2 previously recovered from the farm when PMWS was not present. These results clearly indicate that the presence of PCV2 G1 virus on this farm was not in itself causal for the farm to develop PMWS. In addition, it would appear that, on this farm, the cocirculation of and presumably coinfection of pigs with 2 different genogroups of PCV2 was also not an important factor in the development of PMWS.
The present results from studies on farms in Ireland and Northern Ireland support this suggestion of a temporal relationship between the emergence of PCV2 viruses. In view of these supportive findings and in an attempt to clarify the confusing nomenclature currently emerging with respect to genogroups/genotypes of PCV2, consideration should be given to a simpler classification, essentially based on the differing amino-acid sequences at positions 86–91 observed on the ORF2 of PCV2 (Fig. 1).4 Thus, it is proposed that PCV2-group 1 (PCV2 G1) viruses should be defined as having an ORF2 sequence characteristic of the majority of early isolates of PCV2 (group 210), and that PCV2-group 2 (PCV2 G2) viruses should be defined as having an ORF2 sequence characteristic of the majority of more recent PCV2 viruses (group 110). The use of a consistent and defined nomenclature, based on the overall documented temporal emergence of these PCV2 reported to date and discussed above, would avoid the use of misleading and inaccurate terms such as "European" and "American" strains of virus.
In conclusion, the results generated in this study do not support the hypothesis that infection of pigs with PCV2 G1 virus as determined by the predicted amino-acid sequence encoded for ORF2 was, in itself, responsible for the development of epizootic PMWS on pig farms on the island of Ireland. However, further in vivo and in vitro studies are required on the newly documented genogroups of PCV2 virus to determine if biological differences in these viruses exist and, if so, do these reflect differences in pathogenicity in controlled experimental infections and field cases of disease.
| Acknowledgments |
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| Sources and manufacturers |
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a. Qiagen Ltd., Crawley, United Kingdom. ![]()
b. MJ Research Inc., Waltham, MA. ![]()
c. Mast Group Ltd., Merseyside, United Kingdom. ![]()
d. Sigma-Aldrich Ltd., Gillingham, United Kingdom. ![]()
e. Invitrogen Ltd., Paisley, United Kingdom. ![]()
f. Promega UK Ltd., Southampton, United Kingdom. ![]()
g. Applied Biosystems, Foster City, CA. ![]()
h. Edge Biosystems, Gaithersburg, MD. ![]()
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