Isolation and characterization of mammalian orthoreovirus from bats in the United States.

Mammalian orthoreovirus (MRV) infects many mammalian species including humans, bats, and domestic animals. To determine the prevalence of MRV in bats in the United States, we screened more than 900 bats of different species collected during 2015-2019 by a real-time reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction assay; 4.4% bats tested MRV-positive and 13 MRVs were isolated. Sequence and phylogenetic analysis revealed that these isolates belonged to four different strains/genotypes of viruses in Serotypes 1 or 2, which contain genes similar to those of MRVs detected in humans, bats, bovine, and deer. Further characterization showed that these four MRV strains replicated efficiently on human, canine, monkey, ferret, and swine cell lines. The 40/Bat/USA/2018 strain belonging to the Serotype 1 demonstrated the ability to infect and transmit in pigs without prior adaptation. Taken together, this is evidence for different genotypes and serotypes of MRVs circulating in US bats, which can be a mixing vessel of MRVs that may spread to other species, including humans, resulting in cross-species infections.

Isolation and characterization of novel reassortant mammalian orthoreovirus from pigs in the United States.

Mammalian orthoreovirus (MRV) infects multiple mammalian species including humans. A United States Midwest swine farm with approximately one thousand 3-month-old pigs experienced an event, in which more than 300 pigs showed neurological signs, like "down and peddling", with approximately 40% mortality. A novel MRV was isolated from the diseased pigs. Sequence and phylogenetic analysis revealed that the isolate was a reassortant virus containing viral gene segments from three MRV serotypes that infect human, bovine and swine. The M2 and S1 segment of the isolate showed 94% and 92% nucleotide similarity to the M2 of the MRV2 D5/Jones and the S1 of the MRV1 C/bovine/Indiana/MRV00304/2014, respectively; the remaining eight segments displayed 93%-95% nucleotide similarity to those of the MRV3 FS-03/Porcine/USA/2014. Pig studies showed that both MRV-infected and native contact pigs displayed fever, diarrhoea and nasal discharge. MRV RNA was detected in different intestinal locations of both infected and contact pigs, indicating that the MRV isolate is pathogenic and transmissible in pigs. Seroconversion was also observed in experimentally infected pigs. A prevalence study on more than 180 swine serum samples collected from two states without disease revealed 40%-52% positive to MRV. All results warrant the necessity to monitor MRV epidemiology and reassortment as the MRV could be an important pathogen for the swine industry and a novel MRV might emerge to threaten animal and public health.

A recombinant pseudorabies virus encoding the HA gene from H3N2 subtype swine influenza virus protects mice from virulent challenge.

The hemagglutinin (HA) gene of A/Swine/Inner Mogolian/547/2001 (H3N2) swine influenza virus (SIV) was recombined into the genome of pseudorabies virus (PRV) Bartha-K61 vaccine strain, generating a recombinant PRV expressing the HA gene, designated as rPRV-HA. One group of 15 mice was inoculated intranasally (i.n.) with 10(5.0) PFU of rPRV-HA, and another two control groups of mice (15 mice per group) were mock-inoculated or inoculated with Bartha-K61. Mice inoculated with rPRV-HA developed hemagglutination inhibition antibodies 3 weeks post-inoculation. Twenty-eight days post-inoculation, all mice were challenged i.n. with 10(5.0) TCID50 of A/Swine/Heilongjiang/74/2000 (H3N2). No challenge virus was isolated from vaccinated mice, and mild pathological lesions were observed only in lungs following challenge. The results demonstrate that the recombinant rPRV-HA expressing the HA gene from H3N2 SIV can protect mice from heterologous virulent challenge, and may represent a candidate vaccine against SIV.