Previous Article | Next Article ![]()
Journal of Virology, October 2001, p. 9239-9251, Vol. 75, No. 19
Food Animal Health Research Program,
Department of Veterinary Preventive Medicine, Ohio Agricultural
Research and Development Center, The Ohio State University, Wooster,
Ohio 44691,1 and Animal Disease
Diagnostic Laboratory, Ohio Department of Agriculture, Reynoldsburg,
Ohio 430682
Received 30 January 2001/Accepted 22 June 2001
Porcine enteric calicivirus (PEC/Cowden) causes diarrhea in pigs,
grows in cell culture, and is morphologically and genetically similar
to the Sapporo-like human caliciviruses. Genetic analysis revealed that
the tissue culture-adapted (TC) Cowden PEC has one distant and three
clustered amino acid substitutions in the capsid region and 2 amino acid changes in the RNA polymerase region compared to wild-type
(WT) PEC (M. Guo, K.-O. Chang, M. E. Hardy, Q. Zhang, A. V. Parwani, and L. J. Saif, J. Virol. 73:9625-9631,
1999). In this study, the TC PEC, passaged in a porcine kidney cell
line, and the WT PEC, passaged in gnotobiotic (Gn) pigs, were used to orally inoculate 13 4- to 6-day-old Gn pigs. No diarrhea developed in
the TC-PEC-exposed pigs, whereas moderate diarrhea developed in the
WT-PEC orally inoculated pigs, persisting for 2 to 5 days. Fecal virus
shedding persisting for at least 7 days was detected by both reverse
transcription (RT)-PCR and antigen-enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay
(antigen-ELISA) in both TC-PEC and WT-PEC orally inoculated pigs but
not in mock-inoculated pigs. The PEC particles were detected by
immunoelectron microscopy (IEM) in intestinal contents from all the
WT-PEC-inoculated pigs, but not from the TC-PEC-inoculated pigs. Mild
(duodenum and jejunum) or no (ileum) villous atrophy was observed in
histologic sections of the small intestines of TC-PEC-inoculated pigs,
whereas WT PEC caused mild to severe (duodenum and jejunum) villous
atrophy and fusion. Scanning electron microscopy confirmed mild
shortening and blunting of villi in the duodenum and jejunum of the
TC-PEC-inoculated pigs, in contrast to moderate to severe villous
shortening and blunting in the duodenum and jejunum of
WT-PEC-inoculated pigs. Higher numbers of PEC antigen-positive villous
enterocytes were detected by immunofluorescent (IF) staining in the
proximal small intestine of the WT-PEC-inoculated pigs, in contrast to
low numbers of PEC antigen-positive enterocytes in only one of four
TC-PEC-inoculated pigs. No PEC antigen-positive cells were observed in
the colon or extraintestinal tissues of all inoculated pigs or in the
small intestine of one mock-inoculated pig. Thus, the TC PEC was at least partially attenuated (no diarrhea, mild lesions) after serial passage in cell culture. In further experiments, three 4- to 6-day-old Gn pigs were intravenously (i.v.) inoculated with WT PEC, and all pigs
developed diarrhea and villous atrophy in the small intestines resembling that observed in the orally inoculated pigs. Fecal viral
shedding persisting for 8 days was detected by both RT-PCR and
antigen-ELISA, and PEC was detected by IEM in feces or intestinal contents. The PEC RNA and antigens (at low titers) were detected in
acute-phase sera from all the WT-PEC i.v.-inoculated pigs and also from
seven of nine of the WT-PEC orally inoculated pigs. Oral or i.v.
inoculation of four additional pigs with the PEC-positive acute-phase
sera induced diarrhea, small intestinal lesions, PEC shedding in feces,
and seroconversion to PEC, confirming the occurrence of viremia during
PEC infection, with infectious PEC present in acute-phase sera. No
diarrhea, histopathologic changes, or IF staining in the small
intestine or fecal or serum detection of PEC was evident in two pigs
i.v. mock-inoculated or a pig inoculated i.v. with inactivated WT PEC.
To our knowledge, this is the first report of an attenuated enteric
calicivirus, the induction of diarrhea, and intestinal lesions in Gn
pigs caused by i.v. inoculation of WT PEC and the presence of viremia
following PEC infection.
0022-538X/01/$04.00+0 DOI: 10.1128/JVI.75.19.9239-9251.2001
Copyright © 2001, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.
Comparative Pathogenesis of Tissue Culture-Adapted and
Wild-Type Cowden Porcine Enteric Calicivirus (PEC) in Gnotobiotic
Pigs and Induction of Diarrhea by Intravenous Inoculation of
Wild-Type PEC
*
Corresponding author. Mailing address: Food Animal
Health Research Program, Department of Veterinary Preventive Medicine, Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center (OARDC), The Ohio
State University, 1680 Madison Ave., Wooster, OH 44691. Phone: (330)
263-3744. Fax: (330) 263-3677. E-mail: saif.2{at}osu.edu.
This article has been cited by other articles:
| J. Bacteriol. | Mol. Cell. Biol. | Microbiol. Mol. Biol. Rev. |
|---|
| Clin. Vaccine Immunol. | ALL ASM JOURNALS |
|---|