Studies on the prevalence of torque teno sus virus TTSuV infection in the pig population of North East India

Abstract

Torque teno sus virus is a non-enveloped virus containing single stranded DNA as its newlinegenome, which is classified in the family Anelloviridae. The Anellovirus group infects newlinewide range of host species from human to domestic animals. The length of the viral genome newlinevaries based on thehost range i.e. higher the species order larger the genome. Anellovirus newlinefrom different speciesshow great genetic diversity over 56% among the members in ORF1 newlineregion and about 35 to 55% within the genus. In India, reports on prevalence are newlinedistribution of TTV infecting human are available and shown to be associated with hepatic newlinedisorders , however, the similar information is lacking in animal population, especially in newlinepigs. Swine TTVs (TTSuV), are considered to act secondarily or as co-factor in causing newlineserious pathological conditions such as porcine dermatitis and nephropathy syndrome newline(PDNS), and post-weaning multisystemic wasting syndrome (PMWS). So far the presence newlineof the virus has not been reported in India. Considering that swine torque teno viruses newline(TTSuV) have the potential to cross the species barrier and that pork consumption is newlinecommon in North-Eastern states, the current study wasinitiated investigate the presence of newlineTTSuV in the Indian pig population. The existence of the virus in 110 samples from 12 newlinedifferent states of India was confirmed by the study and the presence of viruses of both the newlineIotatorquevirus and Kappatorquevirus genera in India was confirmed by phylogenetic newlineanalysis of nucleotide sequences obtained from the PCR products. This research is the first newlineavailable presentation on the presence and distribution ofrising TTSuVs in India and this newlinehighlights the circulation of both the TTSuV1 and TTSuV2genera. Torque teno sus viruses newline(TTSuVs) have never been implicated in direct causation ofany disease; however, their role newlineas cofactors in precipitation of certain disease conditions is gaining importance. newlineConsidering the spurt in the number of outbreaks of porcine reproductive and respiratory newlinesyndrome (PRRS), porcine circovirus 2 (PCV2) infections andclassical swine fever (CSF) newline newline2 newline newlinein India, we have investigated the extent of association of TTSuVs with the above said newline newlineviruses by PCR. The TTsuVs were detected in 53% and 26.22% of CSFV-PRRSV-PCV- newlinepositive and apparently healthy negative tissue samples respectively. In serum, these were newline newlinedetected respectively in 29.60% and 21.42 % of CSFV- PRRSV-infected and apparently newlinesamples. The results obtained for the tissue samples is in concurrence with the observations newline newlineof previous studies which reported higher prevalence ofTTSuVs in CSFV-PRRSV-PCV- newlinepositive clinical specimens as compared to the healthy ones. This is the first report of co- newlineinfection of TTSuVs with CSFV, PRRSV and PCV from India. newline