Occurrence and VP2 gene-based Genotyping of Porcine Teschoviruses in India

Bhat S, Sircar S, Ansari MI, Dar PS, Vinodhkumar OR, Dhama K and Malik YS (2020). Occurrence and VP2 gene-based Genotyping of Porcine Teschoviruses in India. Journal of Immunology Immunopathology, 22(2): 152–158. Porcine Teschovirus (PTVs), of the genus Teschovirus under the family Picornaviridae, are ubiquitously detected enteric viral pathogens in pigs and wild boars. PTVs have been responsible for causing the severe disease to asymptomatic infections in pigs. In the current study, sixty-seven faecal samples from the pigs of diverse age groups, sex, and health status were collected from three states of India viz., Uttar Pradesh (UP) (n = 27), Karnataka (n = 25), and Kerala (n = 17). The occurrence of PTV in pigs was 8.95% (6/67) with the highest in the state of Uttar Pradesh (3/27, 11.11%). Furthermore, nucleic acid-based sequence distance analysis revealed the circulation of genetically diverse PTV strains (66.8%-98.4%) in Indian pigs. Our study reports the circulation of PTV genotype 6 and 13 in the Indian pigs. The single Indian PTV 6 strain showed the closest relatedness to the German PTV strain (AF296117; 80.4%), whereas five PTV 13 strains were closer to the Hungarian strain (JQ429405; 74.1-78.9%). Future study will focus on VP1 genetic characterization and the evolutionary nature of Indian PTVs.