Why the study?
Diarrhoea is a major cause of death in neonate pigs primarily caused by RNA viruses, and next-generation sequencing can deeply characterize their interspecific and intraspecific genetic diversity.
NGS characterization of the RNA virome in neonatal piglets with diarrhoea identified Rotaviruses as the primary aetiological agents and revealed high levels of unreported intraspecific viral diversity.
NGS detects high unreported intraspecific RNA virus diversity in diarrhoeic piglets; hypothesis-generating for aetiology and control strategies.
BACKGROUND: Diarrhoea is a major cause of death in neonate pigs and most of the viruses that cause it are RNA viruses. Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) deeply characterize the genetic diversity among rapidly mutating virus populations at the interspecific as well as the intraspecific level. The diversity of RNA viruses present in faeces of neonatal piglets suffering from diarrhoea in 47 farms, plus 4 samples from non-diarrhoeic piglets has been evaluated by NGS. Samples were selected among the cases submitted to the Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratories of Infectious Diseases of the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (Barcelona, Spain) and Universidad de León (León, Spain). RESULTS: The analyses identified the presence of 12 virus species corresponding to 8 genera of RNA viruses. Most samples were co-infected by several viruses. Kobuvirus and Rotavirus were more commonly reported, with Sapovirus, Astrovirus 3, 4 and 5, Enterovirus G, Porcine epidemic diarrhoea virus, Pasivirus and Posavirus being less frequently detected. Most sequences showed a low identity with the sequences deposited in GenBank, allowing us to propose several new VP4 and VP7 genotypes for Rotavirus B and Rotavirus C. CONCLUSIONS: Among the cases analysed, Rotaviruses were the main aetiological agents of diarrhoea in neonate pigs. Besides, in a small number of cases Kobuvirus and Sapovirus may also have an aetiological role. Even most animals were co-infected in early life, the association with enteric disease among the other examined viruses was unclear. The NGS method applied successfully characterized the RNA virome present in faeces and detected a high level of unreported intraspecific diversity.
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Cortey et al. (2019) studied this question.
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