Pathogenicity comparison between highly pathogenic and NADC30-like porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus

• DOI: 10.1007/s00705-016-2883-y
• Publication Date: 2016-05-05T06:54:27Z
• Authors: Zhe Sun; Juan Wang; Xiaofei Bai; Guobiao Ji; He Yan; Yingying Li; Yuzhou Wang; Feifei Tan; Yan Xiao; Xiangdong Li; Kegong Tian
• Keywords: Tissue tropism; Arterivirus; Highly pathogenic; Medical microbiology; Nidovirales; Viral Shedding

The pathogenicity of HNjz15, an NADC30-like strain of porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (PRRSV), was investigated and compared to that of a highly pathogenic PRRSV JAX1 strain. Six-week-old pigs infected with each virus showed typical clinical symptoms, including high fever and respiratory disorders. Pigs infected with JXA1 had more-severe clinical manifestations than pigs infected with HNjz15. HNjz15 replicated in vivo with kinetics similar to those of JXA1 but induced a lower level of PRRSV-specific antibody at the beginning of virus infection. Histopathologically, JXA1 infection led to more-severe lung lesions and broader organ tropism than HNjz15 did. Different from what was observed with the previously reported NADC30-like PRRSV JL580 strain, all HNjz15-infected pigs survived until the end of the study. All of these results indicated that NADC30-like PRRSV HNjz15 is virulent to pigs but is less pathogenic than the JXA1 and JL580 PRRSV strains.