Inactivation of porcine epidemic diarrhea virus with electron beam irradiation under cold chain conditions

Yan Liu; Yang Shao; Lu Wang; Weilai Lu; Shihua Li; Diandou Xu; Yu Vincent Fu

doi:10.1016/j.eti.2022.102715

Inactivation of porcine epidemic diarrhea virus with electron beam irradiation under cold chain conditions

Environ Technol Innov. 2022 Aug:27:102715. doi: 10.1016/j.eti.2022.102715. Epub 2022 Jun 6.

Authors

Yan Liu^{1

2}, Yang Shao³, Lu Wang^{1

2}, Weilai Lu^{1

2}, Shihua Li⁴, Diandou Xu³, Yu Vincent Fu^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory of Microbial Resources, Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China.
² Savaid Medical School, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China.
³ Beijing Engineering Research Center of Radiographic Techniques and Equipment, Institute of High Energy Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China.
⁴ CAS Key Laboratory of Pathogenic Microbiology and Immunology, Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China.

Abstract

The many instances of COVID-19 outbreaks suggest that cold chains are a possible route for the spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). However, owing to the low temperatures of cold chains, which are normally below 0 °C, there are limited options for virus inactivation. Here, high-energy electron beam (E-beam) irradiation was used to inactivate porcine epidemic diarrhea virus (PEDV) under simulated cold chain conditions. This coronavirus was used as a surrogate for SARS-CoV-2. The possible mechanism by which high-energy E-beam irradiation inactivates PEDV was also explored. An irradiation dose of 10 kGy reduced the PEDV infectious viral titer by 1.68-1.76 log₁₀TCID $_{50} / 100$ $μ$ L in the cold chain environment, suggesting that greater than 98.1% of PEDV was inactivated. E-beam irradiation at 5-30 kGy damaged the viral genomic RNA with an efficiency of 46.25%-92.11%. The integrity of the viral capsid was disrupted at 20 kGy. The rapid and effective inactivation of PEDV at temperatures below freezing indicates high-energy E-beam irradiation as a promising technology for disinfecting SARS-CoV-2 in cold chain logistics to limit the transmission of COVID-19.

Keywords: Capsid integrity; Cold chain; Coronavirus; Electron beam irradiation; Genome integrity; Long-range RT-qPCR.