Comparison of historical and contemporary isolates of Senecavirus A

Senecavirus A (SVA) was discovered as a cell culture contaminant in 2002, and multiple attempts to experimentally reproduce disease were unsuccessful. Field reports of porcine idiopathic vesicular disease (PIVD) cases testing PCR positive for SVA in addition to outbreaks of PIVD in Brazil and the United States in 2015 suggested SVA was a causative agent, which has now been consistently demonstrated experimentally. Ease of experimental reproduction of disease with contemporary strains of SVA raised questions concerning the difficulty of reproducing vesicular disease with historical isolates. The following study was conducted to compare the pathogenicity of SVA between historical and contemporary isolates in growing pigs. Six groups of pigs (n = 8) were intranasally inoculated with the following SVA isolates: SVV001/2002, CAN/2011, HI/2012, IA/2015, NC/2015, SD/2015. All isolates induced vesicular disease in at least half of the inoculated pigs from each group. All pigs replicated virus as demonstrated by serum and/or swab samples positive for SVA by quantitative PCR. Pig sera tested by virus neutralization assay demonstrated cross-neutralizing antibodies against all viruses utilized in the study. Cross-neutralizing antibodies from pigs inoculated with historical isolates were lower than those pigs that were inoculated with contemporary isolates. Phylogenetic analysis revealed two clades with SVV001/2002 being in a separate Glade compared to the other five isolates. Although differences in the infection kinetics and sequences of these six isolates were found, clinical presentation of vesicular disease was similar between both historical and contemporary isolates.

Automated summary

Senecavirus A (SVA) was discovered in 2002 as a cell culture contaminant, with subsequent reports of porcine idiopathic vesicular disease (PIVD) cases testing PCR positive for SVA. Experimental reproduction of disease with contemporary SVA strains raised questions about reproducing vesicular disease with historical isolates. Comparing historical and contemporary SVA isolates in growing pigs revealed differences in cross-neutralizing antibody levels, but similar clinical presentation of vesicular disease.