Isolation and full-genome sequencing of Seneca Valley virus in piglets from China, 2016.

Background: Seneca valley virus (SVV), a member of the Picornaviridae family, is a small non-enveloped RNA virus, that is linked to porcine idiopathic vesicular disease (PIVD). SVV infection in swine results in vesicular disease and epidemic transient neonatal losses (ETNL). The first case of SVV infection was reported in Guangdong, South China in 2015.

Results: We isolated and characterized an SVV HB-CH-2016 strain from vesicular lesion tissue specimens from piglets with PIVD in Hubei, Central China. The complete genome sequence of SVV HB-CH-2016 strain shares high nucleotide identities (94 to 99 %) with all previously reported SVV genomes, moreover, the polyprotein accounts for 98-99 % of amino acid sequence identity. Therefore, the SVV HB-CH-2016 strain is closely related to the SVV CH-01-2015 strain.

Conclusions: The case reported in this paper is the second SVV infection case in China. Our findings demonstrate that sporadic SVV infection has occurred in Central China, and therefore, active surveillance on the swine population is important. Moreover, veterinarians must pay attention to this vesicular disease and reinforce biosecurity measures and prevent SVV spread.