Cocirculation of Swine H1N1 Influenza A Virus Lineages in Germany.

Roland Zell,Ralf Dürrwald,Marco Groth,Anja Philipps,Jeannette Lange,Andi Krumbholz

doi:10.3390/v12070762

Abstract

The genome analysis of 328 H1N1 swine influenza virus isolates collected in a 13-year long-term swine influenza surveillance in Germany is reported. Viral genomes were sequenced with the Illumina next-generation sequencing technique and conventional Sanger methods. Phylogenetic analyses were conducted with Bayesian tree inference. The results indicate continued prevalence of Eurasian avian swine H1N1 but also emergence of a novel H1N1 reassortant, named Schneiderkrug/2013-like swine H1N1, with human-like hemagglutinin and avian-like neuraminidase and internal genes. Additionally, the evolution of an antigenic drift variant of A (H1N1) pdm09 was observed, named Wachtum/2014-like swine H1N1. Both variants were first isolated in northwest Germany, spread to neighboring German states and reached greater proportions of the H1N1 isolates of 2014 and 2015. The upsurge of Wachtum/2014-like swine H1N1 is of interest as this is the first documented persistent swine-to-swine spread of A (H1N1) pdm09 in Germany associated with antigenic variation. Present enzootic swine influenza viruses in Germany now include two or more co-circulating, antigenically variant viruses of each of the subtypes, H1N1 and H1N2.

Highlights

Influenza A viruses (IAV) of the family Orthomyxoviridae infect a wide range of hosts including feral water fowl, poultry and several mammalian species.Swine influenza is of particular significance due to its great economic importance
These 40 virus strains plus 810 isolates of the surveillance have been sequenced by the Jena Swine Influenza Virus Sequencing Initiative, i.e., 348 swH1N1, 267 swH1N2, 229 swH3N2 and six swH3N1 isolates [8]
Swine influenza is enzootic in Germany and many other European countries

Summary

Introduction

Influenza A viruses (IAV) of the family Orthomyxoviridae infect a wide range of hosts including feral water fowl (main hosts), poultry and several mammalian species (e.g., humans, pigs and horses). Swine influenza is of particular significance due to its great economic importance. There are three areas with major swine production, each with characteristic, enzootic swine influenza A virus (S-IAV) strains. These areas are Europe, North America and East/Southeast Asia. Pig holding is increasing in Central and South America which probably contributed to the emergence of A (H1N1) pdm09 [1]. Eurasian avian-like swine H1N1 (EA swH1N1) emerged in Belgium and Germany in 1979 [2,3]

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Conclusion