Role of different genes in the virulence and pathogenesis of Aujeszky's disease virus.

In this study the role of different genes located in the unique short region of the genome of Aujeszky's disease virus was examined. Inactivation of the genes encoding the protein kinase (PK), gp63, and gI reduced virulence of the virus for pigs, in contrast to inactivation of the genes encoding the 28 kDa protein, and gX. There was no correlation between virulence and virus multiplication in vitro or in the oropharynx in vivo. The morphogenesis of the PK mutant was altered. The gI mutant replicated to normal titres in the oropharynx and could be recovered from the trigeminal ganglia but not from other parts of the central nervous system, suggesting that gI facilitates the spread of the virus from neuron to neuron. All mutants induced neutralizing antibody and complete or partial protection against a challenge infection. PK and gp63 were required for the induction of complete protection, although these proteins are reportedly not targets for neutralizing antibody or cytotoxic T cells.     

伪狂犬病毒Ea株UL38基因的克隆、序列分析及表达

以伪狂犬病毒Ea株基因组DNA为模板,通过PCR扩增UL38全长基因,将PCR产物克隆于pMD18-T载体,并采用双脱氧终止法进行序列测定.序列分析显示UL38基因全长1 107 bp,可编码369个氨基酸.将该基因克隆到原核表达载体pQE-82L的6×His下游,获得原核表达质粒pQE-UL38,IPTG诱导在大肠杆菌中成功表达并获得相对分子质量约40 000的融合表达蛋白6×His-UL38,Western blot试验证实表达的融合蛋白能与抗6×His的单抗发生特异性反应.进一步将UL38基因插入真核表达载体pEGFP-N1中EGFP基因的5′端,获得与EGFP融合表达的真核表达质粒pEGFP-UL38,转染Hela细胞,24、48 h通过激光共聚焦显微镜观察显示pEGFP-UL38,24 h荧光主要分布在胞浆,有部分分布在核内,但随时间延长,荧光逐渐向细胞核中转移,在转染后48 h几乎完全定位于核内.但对照载体pEGFP-N1转染细胞的荧光一直呈弥散型分布于整个细胞.     

Influence of vaccination on Aujeszky's disease virus and disease transmission

Parenteral vaccination of fattening pigs with either modified live or inactivated Aujeszky's disease virus did not prevent infection with field strain virus or the development of clinical disease. The duration and severity of the clinical syndrome was, however, reduced and vaccinated pigs did not suffer the severe weight loss and high mortality experienced by non-vaccinated pigs in the acute phase of disease. The range of tissues in which challenge virus replication took place was more restricted in vaccinated animals and the concentration of virus in infected tissues was reduced. Vaccination shortened the duration of field virus excretion and carriage in the tonsil. Replication of modified live vaccine virus was restricted to the site of inoculation in the neck and associated lymph nodes for two days after vaccination and it was not excreted by vaccinated pigs. Attempts to infect pigs by feeding them tissues taken from non-vaccinated or vaccinated pigs soon after challenge infection were unsuccessful.     

鸭肠炎病毒UL51和UL52基因的克隆及序列分析

利用靶基因步行 PCR 方法扩增得到鸭肠炎病毒(DEV Clone-03)5352 bp 基因片段,并进行克隆和测序.序列分析发现,该片段包含2个ORF.Blast 分析表明,这2个ORF分别与单纯疱疹病毒1型(HSV-1)UL51 和UL52 基因同源,命名为DEV Clone-03 UL51和UL52,分别编码252和1124个氨基酸.DEV Clone-03 UL51和UL52基因排列方式与HSV-1同源基因相一致,为"头对头"的转录方向,两个ORF间有236 bp 间隔序列.用DNAStar(Megalign)软件分别对这2个ORF和11株α-疱疹病毒参考毒株进行分析,发现DEV Clone-03 UL51 与HSV-1的氨基酸序列有相对较高同源性,DEV Clone-03 UL52与EHV-4 同源性相对较高.并且DEV Clone-03UL51基因在α-疱疹病毒中比较保守.与HSV-1 UL52 蛋白相似,DEV Clone-03 UL52蛋白C末端存在锌指结构.系统发育分析表明,DEV Clone-03与α疱疹病毒亚科成员的关系比较保守,与Mardivims属的成员具有较近的亲缘关系.     

Serological response of pigs infected with Aujeszky's disease virus

The temporal development of antibody in four groups of pigs infected with different Aujeszky's disease virus isolates was examined. The enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay detected antibody by five to six days after infection and the antibody-dependent cell-mediated cytotoxicity assay detected antibody seven to nine days after infection. Neutralising antibody was first detected nine to 10 days after infection, whereas assays measuring complement mediated antibody lysis did not detect antibody until 10 days after infection. These results are discussed in terms of their importance to the diagnosis of and recovery from Aujeszky's disease.     

Survival of Aujeszky's disease virus in frozen pig meat

The survival of Aujeszky's disease virus was studied in muscle, lymph node and bone marrow frozen at -18 degrees C, following infusion of a large dose of the virus into the hindquarter of a freshly killed pig. Previous attempts to induce an adequate viraemia for such studies, using intranasal and intravenous routes of inoculation of large doses of virus in live pigs, were unsuccessful. In frozen meat and marrow, the virus showed a biphasic inactivation curve with time, similar to that seen with cell-cultured virus. Most virus was rapidly inactivated initially but a small population of more stable virus persisted for a considerable period of time. In contrast, virus in lymph node showed a uniform inactivaton rate, like that of the more stable componet only. Virus was not detectable in any of the tissues after 35 days of storage at -18 degrees C.     

Survival of Aujeszky's disease virus in infected pig slurry

It has been demonstrated that after experimental infection of pig slurry from the space under the slatted floor (infection dose of 10(6)PFU per ml), the Aujeszky's disease virus (ADV) survived for 72 hours at the temperature of 15 degrees C and at pH 6.5, but was inactivated after 96 hours. When technologically treated pig slurry from the storage tanks was saturated with water and infected with ADV at the dose of 10(5)PFU per ml, the virus survived for 23 days when kept at 15 degrees C and 4 degrees C and at pH 6.8, but was inactivated under the same conditions after 30 days. When the infective ADV dose in the technologically treated pig slurry in the storage tanks was reduced to 10(4)PFU per ml, the virus survived 16 days at +4 degrees C and pH 7.0 and 8.0 but was inactivated within 23 days after infection.     

Infection of pigs by aerosols of Aujeszky's disease virus and their shedding of the virus

On three consecutive days, six pigs were exposed for 15 minutes to aerosols of Aujeszky's disease virus. The total estimated dose was 4·5 log₁₀ 50. Within each isolation room, a sentinel pig was placed on a deck two feet away from the infected pig. The breath of the pigs that had inhaled the aerosols was collected on days 3, 7 and 13. The respiratory and other clinical signs of the infected pigs resembled those in field cases of Aujeszky's disease. All the pigs infected with Aujeszky's disease virus seroconverted within seven to 10 days after infection. Among the sentinel pigs, clinical signs were minimal and only three seroconverted.     

Aujeszky's disease virus infection patterns in European wild boar

Evidence of exposure (i.e. seroprevalence) to Aujeszky's disease virus (ADV) is high among wild boars from south-central Spain. This research aims to determine the presence of ADV by molecular detection, and to describe the patterns of ADV infection in wild boars. Tonsils (TN) and trigeminal ganglia (TG) for ADV molecular detection, and sera were collected from wild boars (n = 192) in 39 hunting estates from south-central Spain (2004/2005). A nested polymerase chain reaction (PCR) for a fragment of the ADV surface glycoprotein B was performed on collected tissues. Individual status of presence of viral DNA was tested against explanatory variables by means of a Generalized Linear Mixed Model (GLIMMIX) analysis. Viral detection prevalence was 30.6 ± 6.7%. Although there was an increasing pattern with age and females presented higher prevalences, no statistically significant influence of sex and age was found for viral presence. Molecular testing in TN and TG allowed classifying infection status into (i) ADV negative (in both TN and TG), (ii) only positive in TN, (iii) only positive in TG and (iv) positive in both TN and TG. ADV DNA was statistically more frequently evidenced in TN in females than in males. With the exception of one individual, all wild boars with presence of ADV DNA in TN and TG or only in TG reacted positive in the ELISA. In contrast, animals with only ADV DNA in TN serorreacted positively and negatively. Interestingly, 45% of the PCR positive wild boars (n = 59) were seronegative in the serological test, all of them with viral DNA only in TN. Our results provide evidence for latency of ADV in wild boars and stress the fact that antibody detection based tests may fail to detect a proportion of recently infected animals. This is of great concern since current management schemes in our study promote animal translocation for hunting purposes, with the associated risk of under-detecting ADV infected individuals when using serology to screen for ADV infection.     

Avirulent ts and thymidine kinase-deficient mutant of Aujeszky's disease virus.

The temperature-sensitive (ts), thymidine kinase-deficient (TK-) mutant designated ZHtsTK- strain, of Aujeszky's disease virus (ADV) was isolated from a virulent strain with the treatments using 5-bromodeoxyuridine and arabinosylthymine. The ZHtsTK- strain was easily distinguished from the other virulent ADV strains by plaque size on HmLu-1 and chicken embryo fibroblast cells and by restriction endonuclease analyses using Bam HI, Sal I and Kpn I. The ZHtsTK- strain was avirulent for mice, guinea pigs and rabbits, and produced neutralizing antibodies to ADV in these animals. The rabbits inoculated with the ZHtsTK- strain did not shed detectable amounts of virus after dexamethasone treatment. The ZHtsTK- strain was also avirulent for 5-day-old piglets and did not cause disease. No virus was detected from the piglets inoculated intramuscularly in the nasal swabs or the tissues examined on postinoculation day 9. These findings presented here suggested that there is a significant correlation between pathogenicity and properties such as ts and TK-, and the combination of ts and TK- properties plays a much larger role in reducing virulence for animals.     

Horizontal transmission of Aujeszky's disease virus from sheep to pigs

Eight 2-month-old merino lambs were inoculated intranasally with different (10(2.0)-10(5.0)TCID50) amounts of Aujeszky's disease virus (ADV). Electron microscopic studies indicated that ADV replicated in extra-neural sites, in the epithelial cells of the mucosa of the upper and lower respiratory tract. Although the virus was excreted continuously in nasal discharges, horizontal transmission to contact lambs failed. The surviving exposed and contact lambs had no demonstrable antibodies against ADV and they were susceptible when challenged by ADV. However, the virus was transmitted to susceptible pigs in contact with the exposed lambs. One of the five contact pigs showed characteristic clinical signs of Aujeszky's disease, developed a nonsuppurative meningoencephalomyelitis and ADV was recovered from the brain, nasal discharge and other organs. Restriction enzyme analysis of DNA from this virus confirmed the sheep origin of the isolate. The other 4 pigs seroconverted. ADV infection in sheep is therefore a possible source of infection for pigs, but the lack of horizontal transmission in sheep was confirmed.     

Marker vaccines, virus protein-specific antibody assays and the control of Aujeszky's disease

Vaccination of pigs is widely practised to control Aujeszky's disease (AD). Molecular biological research revealed that several conventionally attenuated virus vaccines harbour deletions in their genomes. The deleted genes are nonessential for virus replication and can be involved in the expression of virulence. These findings have prompted several groups to construct well-characterized deletion mutants of AD virus that do not express either glycoprotein gI, gX or gIII. These mutants have also been rendered thymidine kinase negative. Although data on vaccine efficacy and safety have been published, widely varying test conditions have made it impossible to identify the most efficacious deletion mutant vaccine(s). Vaccination enhances the amount of virus required for infection and reduces, but does not prevent, the shedding of virulent virus and the establishment of latency in pigs infected with virulent AD virus. Therefore, while a vaccination programme will reduce the circulation of virus in the field, it will not eliminate AD virus from pig populations. To eradicate AD, the ability to differentiate infected from vaccinated pigs is crucial. The use of marker vaccines enables us to identify infected pigs in vaccinated populations by detecting antibodies against the protein whose gene is deleted from vaccine strains. The antibody response to gI appears to persist for more than 2 years, and all of about 300 field strains tested so far express gI. The use of vaccines lacking gI in combination with an enzyme linked immunosorbent assay to detect antibodies to gI and culling of gI-seropositive pigs, may help to eradicate AD in countries where vaccination is widely practised.     

Comparative studies on the virulence of strains of Aujeszky's disease virus]

Comparative Studies on Virulence of Aujeszky's Disease Virus Strains Clinical, virological, pathomorphological and immunofluorescence examinations were performed in 24 piglets, 4 of them being experimentally infected with a virulent (B) and 6 of them with a low virulent virus strain of Aujeszky's disease (K). 14 animals were kept in enzootically infected practice stock for contact exposure. Results revealed differences in clinical and morphological signs of the disease in several experimental groups due to different virulence and tissue tropism of the used virus strains. Piglets infected with strain B showed clinical changes characteristic for the disease. In animals infected with strain K no clinical signs could be observed in the same observation period. In contact animals only respiratory disorders occurred. Histological changes of the central nervous system were established in animals of all experimental groups. In animals infected with strain K and in the contact animals in addition there were ascertained morphological changes of the interstice of the lungs in form of interstitial pneumonia of the lymphohistiocytic types. Low virulent strains are proved to show a distinct pneumotropism.