Molecular characterization of two novel atypical porcine pestivirus (APPV) strains from piglets with congenital tremor in China

As one of emerging porcine viruses, atypical porcine pestivirus (APPV) was found in three continents since it emerged in 2015. It is now thought as the causative agent for congenital tremor type A-II in piglets. At the end of 2017, two APPV strains were identified from piglets with congenital tremor in Guangxi and Yunnan, China. The genome of APPV GX04/2017 strain was so far determined to be 11,534 nucleotides (nt) in length and contains a single open reading frame (ORF) encoding a polyprotein comprising 3,635 amino acids. Comparative analysis of ORF, Npro, E2, and NS3 gene sequences revealed that the APPV GX04/2017 strain shares nucleotide sequence identities of 82.8%–92.8% with other APPV strains, while YN01/2017 strain is 79.4%–97.4% homology to the others. Phylogenetic analysis showed that the APPV GX04/2017 and YN01/2017 are two novel APPV strains with the highest homology to each other, and relative high similarity to the APPV 000515 and JX-JM01 strains in genome sequence. The current findings provide updated information about APPV epidemiology and divergence in China, which would certainly help to establish reliable diagnosis and surveillance programs for APPV.