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Stokholm I, Fischer N, Baechlein C, Postel A, Galatius A, Kyhn LA, Thøstesen CB, Persson S, Siebert U, Olsen MT, Becher P. In the Search of Marine Pestiviruses: First Case of Phocoena Pestivirus in a Belt Sea Harbour Porpoise. Viruses 2022; 14:v14010161. [PMID: 35062365 PMCID: PMC8780987 DOI: 10.3390/v14010161] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/21/2021] [Revised: 01/13/2022] [Accepted: 01/13/2022] [Indexed: 02/04/2023] Open
Abstract
Pestiviruses are widespread pathogens causing severe acute and chronic diseases among terrestrial mammals. Recently, Phocoena pestivirus (PhoPeV) was described in harbour porpoises (Phocoena phocoena) of the North Sea, expanding the host range to marine mammals. While the role of the virus is unknown, intrauterine infections with the most closely related pestiviruses— Bungowannah pestivirus (BuPV) and Linda virus (LindaV)—can cause increased rates of abortions and deaths in young piglets. Such diseases could severely impact already vulnerable harbour porpoise populations. Here, we investigated the presence of PhoPeV in 77 harbour porpoises, 277 harbour seals (Phoca vitulina), grey seals (Halichoerus grypus) and ringed seals (Pusa hispida) collected in the Baltic Sea region between 2002 and 2019. The full genome sequence of a pestivirus was obtained from a juvenile female porpoise collected along the coast of Zealand in Denmark in 2011. The comparative Bayesian phylogenetic analyses revealed a close relationship between the new PhoPeV sequence and previously published North Sea sequences with a recent divergence from genotype 1 sequences between 2005 and 2009. Our findings provide further insight into the circulation of PhoPeV and expand the distribution from the North Sea to the Baltic Sea region with possible implications for the vulnerable Belt Sea and endangered Baltic Proper harbour porpoise populations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Iben Stokholm
- Evolutionary Genomics Section, GLOBE, University of Copenhagen, Øster Farimagsgade 5, 1353 Copenhagen, Denmark; (I.S.); (M.T.O.)
- Institute for Terrestrial and Aquatic Wildlife Research, University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover, Werftstr. 6, 25761 Büsum, Germany;
| | - Nicole Fischer
- Institute for Medical Microbiology, Virology and Hygiene, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, 20251 Hamburg, Germany;
| | - Christine Baechlein
- Institute of Virology, University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover, Bünteweg 17, 30559 Hannover, Germany; (C.B.); (A.P.)
| | - Alexander Postel
- Institute of Virology, University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover, Bünteweg 17, 30559 Hannover, Germany; (C.B.); (A.P.)
| | - Anders Galatius
- Marine Mammal Research, Department of Ecoscience, Aarhus University, Frederiksborgvej 399, 4000 Roskilde, Denmark; (A.G.); (L.A.K.)
| | - Line Anker Kyhn
- Marine Mammal Research, Department of Ecoscience, Aarhus University, Frederiksborgvej 399, 4000 Roskilde, Denmark; (A.G.); (L.A.K.)
| | | | - Sara Persson
- Swedish Museum of Natural History, Department of Environmental Research and Monitoring, 104 05 Stockholm, Sweden;
| | - Ursula Siebert
- Institute for Terrestrial and Aquatic Wildlife Research, University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover, Werftstr. 6, 25761 Büsum, Germany;
| | - Morten Tange Olsen
- Evolutionary Genomics Section, GLOBE, University of Copenhagen, Øster Farimagsgade 5, 1353 Copenhagen, Denmark; (I.S.); (M.T.O.)
| | - Paul Becher
- Institute of Virology, University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover, Bünteweg 17, 30559 Hannover, Germany; (C.B.); (A.P.)
- Correspondence:
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