A serological survey and characterization of Getah virus in domestic pigs in Thailand, 2017–2018

Abstract

Getah virus (GETV) is a mosquito‐borne RNA virus belonging to the family Togaviridae, genus Alphavirus. GETV infection causes diarrhea and death in piglets, and reproductive failure and abortion in sows. This study conducted a serological survey of GETV infection among domestic pig populations in Thailand. ELISA was used to analyze 1,188 pig serum samples collected from 11 provinces of Thailand during 2017‐2018, with 23.1% of the samples being positive for anti‐GETV antibodies. The positive ratio of anti‐GETV antibodies was significantly higher in nursery (67.9%) and older stages (84.5%) of pigs than in finishing stage (14.2%). Furthermore, we successfully isolated GETV from one pig serum, designated as GETV strain GETV/SW/Thailand/2017, and determined the complete genome sequence (11,689 nt). Phylogenetic analysis demonstrated that our isolate was different from the recent GETV group spreading among pig populations in East Asia, and formed a cluster with two GETV strains, namely YN12031 (China, 2015) and LEIV16275Mar (Far East Russia, 2007). We concluded that two different GETV groups are currently spreading among pig populations in Asian countries.