Experimental infection with a Thai reassortant swine influenza virus of pandemic H1N1 origin induced disease.

BACKGROUND: Following the emergence of the pandemic H1N1 influenza A virus in 2009 in humans, this novel virus spread into the swine population. Pigs represent a potential host for this virus and can serve as a mixing vessel for genetic mutations of the influenza virus. Reassortant viruses eventually emerged from the 2009 pandemic and were reported in swine populations worldwide including Thailand. As a result of the discovery of this emergent disease, pathogenesis studies of this novel virus were conducted in order that future disease protection and control measures in swine and human populations could be enacted. METHODS: The pandemic H1N1 2009 virus (pH1N1) and its reassortant virus (rH1N1) isolated from pigs in Thailand were inoculated into 2 separate cohorts of 9, 3-week-old pigs. Cohorts were consisted of one group experimentally infected with pH1N1 and one group with rH1N1. A negative control group consisting of 3 pigs was also included. Clinical signs, viral shedding and pathological lesions were investigated and compared. Later, 3 pigs from viral inoculated groups and 1 pig from the control group were necropsied at 2, 4, and 12 days post inoculation (DPI). RESULTS: The results indicated that pigs infected with both viruses demonstrated typical flu-like clinical signs and histopathological lesions of varying severity. Influenza infected-pigs of both groups had mild to moderate pulmonary signs on 1-4 DPI. Interestingly, pigs in both groups demonstrated viral RNA detection in the nasal swabs until the end of the experiment (12 DPI). CONCLUSION: The present study demonstrated that both the pH1N1 and rH1N1 influenza viruses, isolated from naturally infected pigs, induced acute respiratory disease in experimentally inoculated nursery pigs. Although animals in the rH1N1-infected cohort demonstrated more severe clinical signs, had higher numbers of pigs shedding the virus, were noted to have increased histopathological severity of lung lesions and increased viral antigen in lung tissue, the findings were not statistically significant in comparison with the pH1N1-infected group. Interestingly, viral genetic material of both viruses could be detected from the nasal swabs until the end of the experiment. Similar to other swine influenza viruses, the clinical signs and pathological lesions in both rH1N1 and pH1N1 were limited to the respiratory tract.

Genetic characterization of Thai swine influenza viruses after the introduction of pandemic H1N1 2009.

Pandemic H1N1 2009 (pH1N1), influenza virus containing triple reassortant internal genes (TRIG) from avian, human, and swine influenza viruses emerged in 2009 as a highly infectious virus that was able to be transmitted from humans to pigs. During June 2010-May 2012, influenza virus surveillance was conducted in Thai pig population. Twenty-three samples (1.75%) were successfully isolated from total of 1,335 samples. Interestingly, pH1N1 (7 isolates, 30.34%), reassortant pH1N1 (rH1N1) (1 isolate, 4.35%), Thai endemic H1N1 (enH1N1) (3 isolates, 13.04%), reassortant H3N2 with pH1N1 internal genes (rH3N2) (9 isolates, 39.13%), and reassortant H1N2 with pH1N1 internal genes (rH1N2) (3 isolates, 13.04%) were found. It should be noted that rH1N1, rH1N2, and rH3N2 viruses contained the internal genes of pH1N1 virus having a TRIG cassette descendant from the North American swine lineage. Although all isolates in this study were obtained from mild clinically sick pigs, the viruses were still highly infective and possibly may play an important role in human-animal interfacing transmission. In addition, the TRIG cassette may have an influence on antigenic shift resulting in emergence of novel viruses, as seen in this study. Continuing surveillance of influenza A natural hosts, particularly in pigs is necessary.

Detection and phylogenetic characterization of hepatitis E virus genotype 3 in a captive wild boar in Thailand.

Hepatitis E virus (HEV) was studied in different types of wild boar captive settings in Thailand, including a wildlife breeding research station, zoo, and commercial wild boar farm, which were located in different locations of Thailand. Fifty-one fecal samples were collected and screened for HEV RNA and then analyzed. One sample obtained from a wildlife breeding research station in Ratchaburi province was HEV positive. Phylogenetic characterization revealed that the virus was HEV genotype 3 and belongs to subgroup 3e, which is closely related to HEV recently isolated from domestic pigs and humans in the country. It was hypothesized that HEV is shared among wild boars, domestic pigs, and humans in Thailand.

Pandemic (H1N1) 2009 virus on commercial swine farm, Thailand.

A swine influenza outbreak occurred on a commercial pig farm in Thailand. Outbreak investigation indicated that pigs were co-infected with pandemic (H1N1) 2009 virus and seasonal influenza (H1N1) viruses. No evidence of gene reassortment or pig-to-human transmission of pandemic (H1N1) 2009 virus was found during the outbreak.

Enhanced Transduction of Macaca fascicularis Hematopoietic Cells with Chimeric Lentiviral Vectors.

Recent marketing approval for genetically engineered hematopoietic stem and T cells bears witness to the substantial improvements in lentiviral vectors over the last two decades, but evaluations of the long-term efficacy and toxicity of gene and cell therapy products will, nevertheless, require further studies in nonhuman primate models. Macaca fascicularis monkeys from Mauritius have a low genetic diversity and are particularly useful for reproducible drug testing. In particular, they have a genetically homogeneous class I major histocompatibility complex system that probably mitigates the variability of the response to simian immunodeficiency virus infection. However, the transduction of simian cells with human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1)-derived vectors is inefficient due to capsid-specific restriction factors, such as the tripartite motif-containing protein tripartite motif 5α, which prevent infection with non-host-adapted retroviruses. This study introduced the modified capsid of the macaque-trophic HIV-1 clone MN4/LSQD into the packaging system and compared transduction efficiencies between hematopoietic cells transduced with this construct and cells transduced with HIV-1 NL4-3-derived packaging constructs. Capsid modification increased transduction efficiency in all hematopoietic cells tested (by factors of up to 10), including hematopoietic progenitor cells, repopulating cells, and T cells from Mauritian Macaca fascicularis, regardless of vector structure or purification method. The study also established culture conditions similar to those used in clinical practice for the efficient transduction of hematopoietic stem and progenitor CD34+ cells. These results suggest that the procedure is suitable for use in Mauritian Macaca fascicularis, which can therefore be used as a model in preclinical studies for hematopoietic gene and cell therapy.