Emergence and phylogenetic analysis of a novel Seneca Valley virus strain in the Guangxi Province of China

Abstract

Senecavirus A (SVA), also known as Seneca Valley virus (SVV), is an emerging infectious pathogen which have been detected in swine herds from the Brazil, USA, Colombia, Thailand, Canada and some provinces in China, suggesting an increasing geographic distribution of this novel virus. Here, we isolated and characterized a SVV, designated SVA CH-GX-01-2018, thought to be responsible for typical vesicular lesions on the snouts and hooves of finishing pigs from a swine herds in Guangxi province, China, in August 2018. Phylogenetic analysis and sequence alignment indicated that this SVA CH-GX-01-2018 strain was closely related to the strains isolated in 2017 in Guangdong province, a neighboring province of Guangxi, South China, with 98.6% identity at the genome nucleotide level. Our findings characterized a novel SVV infection in pigs from South China and emphasize the importance of surveillance, reinforcing biosecurity measures and developing vaccines to prevent the spread of this viral pathogen.

Keywords: Emergence; Seneca Valley virus; Vesicular disease.