RESEARCH: Chinese isolate Newcastle disease virus from swine

//04 Jul 2012
Chinese scientists have isolated the Newcastle Disease Virus (NDV) from swine. The virus is normally considered to only infect avian species.
The strain was obtained from one area where swine and poultry mixed for breeding. According to the research paper, the strain was isolated in 2010, in Henan province of China. The strain, called Xiny10, was isolated from one sick swine whose clinical signs were characterised by progressive weight loss, fever and diarrhoea, in a group of post-weaned pigs of about nine weeks of age.

Comparative research indicates that the swine virus might be generated from the vaccine strain La Sota as it has been widely used as a live virus vaccine until now in China.

Serologic tests
The isolated paramyxovirus, was proved to be Newcastle Disease Virus (NDV) through serologic tests and sequence alignment. It was compared to another previous swine Newcastle Disease Virus (JL01), as well as with the vaccine strain La Sota. They were compared on the basis of sequences of the whole-lengthen fusion (F) gene and biological characteristics.

Xiny10 has great differences with JL01 in virulence, biological characteristics, genotype, and amino acid homology of F gene. The sequence alignment showed Xiny10 and La Sota both belonged to genotype II. It shared 97.3 to 98.7% identities with genotype II NDVs, which was higher than these strains from the other genotypes.

Newcastle disease
Newcastle disease (NCD, avian paramyxovirus-1 infection), an OIE-listed, highly infectious disease, affects birds with a wide range of clinical signs from mild to severe. Although the most significant impact of NCD is on chickens, other species can also be affected. Some pet and zoo birds become ill after infection, while other species can carry and shed virulent viruses asymptomatically.

An article about the study, carried out by Yuan X., Wang Y., Yang J., and others was was published in the July issue of Virology Journal. The article is called Genetic and biological characterizations of a Newcastle disease virus from swine in China.

Related website:
• Virology Journal