Abstract
Vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV) causes sporadic outbreaks of vesicular disease in the southwestern United States. The intrinsic characteristics of epidemic strains associated with these outbreaks are poorly understood. In this study, we report the distinctive genomic and biological characteristics of an epidemic (NJ0612NME6) strain of VSV compared with an endemic (NJ0806VCB) strain. Genomic comparisons between the two strains revealed a total of 111 nucleotide differences (23 non-synonymous) with potentially relevant replacements located in the P, G, and L proteins. When tested in experimentally infected pigs, a natural host of VSV, the epidemic strain caused higher fever and an increased number of vesicular lesions compared to pigs infected with the endemic strain. Pigs infected with the epidemic strain showed decreased systemic antiviral activity (type I – IFN), lower antibody levels, higher levels of interleukin 6, and lower levels of tumor necrosis factor during the acute phase of disease compared to pigs infected with the endemic strain. Furthermore, we document the existence of an RNAemia phase in pigs experimentally infected with VSV and explored the cause for the lack of recovery of infectious virus from blood. Finally, the epidemic strain was shown to be more efficient in down-regulating transcription of IRF-7 in primary porcine macrophages. Collectively, the data shows that the epidemic strain of VSV we tested has an enhanced ability to modulate the innate immune response of the vertebrate host. Further studies are needed to examine other epidemic strains and what contributions a phenotype of increased virulence might have on the transmission of VSV during epizootics.
Highlights
Vesicular stomatitis (VS) is caused by the arthropod-borne vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV, family Rhabdoviridae, genus Vesiculovirus)
The NJ0612NME6 virus grouped with other lineage 1.1 viruses circulating in Mexico, as far back as 2006 and was ancestral to viruses detected in the United States in 2014 and 2015 (Figure 1)
1www.graphpad.com strain NJ1008JAB suggests that the ancestral source of the viruses circulating in the United States were strains associated with lineage 1.1 previously circulating in central and northern Mexico between 2006 and 2009
Summary
Vesicular stomatitis (VS) is caused by the arthropod-borne vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV, family Rhabdoviridae, genus Vesiculovirus). VSV is classified into two distinct serotypes: New Jersey (VSNJV) and Indiana (VSIV) (Rodriguez, 2002; Dietzgen, 2012). Both of these serotypes have been reported from as far south as Bolivia to as far north as the United States. Phylogeographic studies indicate that epidemic VSNJV strains affecting the United States are monophyletic lineages emerging from enzootic progenitors circulating in southern Mexico (Rodriguez et al, 2000; Rainwater-Lovett et al, 2007; Velazquez-Salinas et al, 2014)
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