Division of Pathology, ICAR- Indian Veterinary Research Institute, Bareilly, Izatnagar, 243122, U.P., India
Dr. G Saikumar, Principal Scientist and In-charge PME Cell, Division of Pathology, Indian Veterinary Research Institute, Izatnagar - 243122, Bareilly, U.P., India, E-mail: saikumarivri@gmail.com
Porcine enteroviruses are grouped under the genera Enterovirus G (earlier classified as CPE type III and Porcine Enterovirus B) with 20 serotypes viz. G1-G20. The virus generally causes asymptomatic infections in pigs of all age groups. Although Enterovirus G (EV-G) has been reported from various countries globally but reports from India are rare. The present study was conducted for better understanding of the prevalence of EV-G among Indian pig population. The study included screening of faecal samples (n = 398) and post-mortem samples (n = 119) for the EV-G. The fecal samples were collected from both diarrhoeic and healthy piglets of less than 2 months of age from either sex i.e. 220 from female and 178 from male animal kept at different organized and un-organized swine farms of Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand. The post-mortem samples were collected from the post-mortem facility of ICAR-IVRI, Izatnagar, Bareilly. All the samples were screened for EV-G by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). The RT-PCR results revealed that 97 out of 398 faecal samples and 14 out of 119 post-mortem samples were found positive for EV-G. The congestion of intestinal mucosa and mesenteric lymph nodes, enteritis and distended thin walled intestine was observed as the most striking gross lesions of EV-G infection. Mild to severe inflammatory changes in the gastrointestinal tract along with desquamation of villi mainly in jejunum and ileum along with lymphoid depletion of Peyer's patches were observed as common histopathological finding in EV-G positive cases. For Molecular characterization of the Indian EV-G isolates 52 UTR region was sequenced. Two EV-G isolates EVG/ India/Meerut-69/2020 and EVG/India/IVRI-736/2020 were detected in the present study by RT-PCR. The phylogenetic analysis revealed that the isolate EVG/India/Meerut-69/2020 and EVG/India/IVRI-736/2020 were clustered with and were closely related to EV-G15 strain wild boar/WBD/2011/HUN of Hungary and EV-G 02/NC CNI/2014 of China, respectively. This study reported the molecular investigation of EV-G from Indian pigs and described that multiple strains of EV-G are prevalent in Indian pig population. Further explorative surveillance along with epidemiological studies are highly warranted to find out the real impact of the EV-G on Indian pig population.
Enterovirus, EV-G, Faecal sample, India pigs, Molecular characterization
