Association between genetic sequence homology of Porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus and geographic distance between pig sites

The objective of this study was to investigate whether geographic distance was correlated with genetic homology among isolates of Porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (PRRSV) from a single pork-producing company. We analyzed geographic distance, temporal distance, and percentage similarity in the PRRSV nucleotide sequence among 62 farms, applying the Mantel test for correlation between distance matrices and PRRSV sequencing. Genomic similarity had a significant (P < 0.01) negative (rM = -0.217) correlation with geographic distance. These findings indicate that, under the conditions of this study, the greater the distance between farms, the less the genetic homology among PRRSV isolates.