Identification of two divergent swine Noroviruses detected at the slaughterhouse in North East Italy

Andrea Laconi; Lara Cavicchio; Luca Tassoni; Giovanni Cunial; Adelaide Milani; Martina Ustulin; Guido Di Martino; Mario Forzan; Mery Campalto; Isabella Monne; Maria Serena Beato

doi:10.1186/s40813-020-00147-1

Identification of two divergent swine Noroviruses detected at the slaughterhouse in North East Italy

Porcine Health Manag. 2020 Apr 16:6:9. doi: 10.1186/s40813-020-00147-1. eCollection 2020.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ 1Research and Development Laboratory, Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale Delle Venezie, Legnaro, Padua, Italy.
² 2Department of Comparative Biomedicine and Food Science, University of Padua, Legnaro, Padua, Italy.
³ 3Diagnostic Virology Laboratory, Department of Animal Health, Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale Delle Venezie, Legnaro, Padua, Italy.
⁴ 4Epidemiology Department, Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale Delle Venezie, Legnaro, Padua, Italy.
⁵ 5Diagnostic Laboratory, Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale Delle Venezie, Via Bassa del Cuc 4, 33084, Cordenons, Pordenone, Italy.
⁶ 6Department of Veterinary Science, University of Pisa, Viale delle Piagge 2, 56124 Pisa, Italy.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

Norovirus (NoV) has emerged as one of the major causative agents of non-bacterial, food- and water-borne gastroenteritis in humans, with the main genogroup involved in human outbreaks (GII), which has been detected worldwide in different animal species including swine. A four-month investigation at the slaughterhouse aiming to examine the presence of NoV in the swine in North-Eastern Italy, enabled the detection of two divergent Noroviruses (NoVs) (GII.P11) in two swine farms. This represents the first study in the swine population of North-Eastern Italy, which has paved the way for future integrated virological and epidemiological investigations on swine NoVs.

Keywords: Norovirus; Recombination; Slaughterhouse; Survey; Swine.