Abstract
BackgroundPseudorabies, a highly contagious infectious disease of swine is caused by pseudorabies virus (PRV). PRV can cause fatal infection in other animal species.ResultsWe report a deadly outbreak of pseudorabies that killed 87.2% (3522/4028) minks in a farm in 2014 in Shandong Province, China. PRV was isolated by using Vero cell culture and detected in mink samples by PCR from minks died during the outbreak. Epidemiological analysis indicated that 5.8% of minks (33/566) were PCR positive to PRV in Shandong Province. Phylogenetic analysis indicated that the PRV strains isolated from minks in this study were in the same clade with the Chinese porcine PRV isolates, which are resistant to the PRV vaccine.ConclusionsWe demonstrated that pseudorabies virus caused an outbreak of minks in a farm in Shandong Province of China and the virus has a very high infection rate in minks in Shandong Province, which is a challenge for the fur industry in China.
Highlights
Pseudorabies, a highly contagious infectious disease of swine is caused by pseudorabies virus (PRV)
Bacterial pathogen detection To determine whether the minks died of bacterial infection, their brain and liver tissue smears were stained by Gram staining and examed by microscopy
No bacterium was obtained from brain and liver tissues, suggesting that the minks were not infected with a bacterial pathogen
Summary
Pseudorabies, a highly contagious infectious disease of swine is caused by pseudorabies virus (PRV). PRV can cause fatal infection in other animal species. Pseudorabies, known as Aujeszky’s disease, is caused by pseudorabies virus (PRV), a herpesvirus of genus Varicellovirus in the family Herpesviridae. PRV causes diseases in domesticated and wild animals, but only swine is considered as the reservoir and animal host of PRV because swine are the only animal species that can survive an acute infection and have a latent infection [1, 2]. In its natural host swine, PRV first invade epithelial cells of the mucosal surfaces, the termini of nerve fibers, and the peripheral ganglia and the central nervous system to establish latent infection. The hallmark of the PRV infection in non-porcine animal species is pruritus in the infected area and it is usually fatal PRV-infected mink exhibit neurological signs and die within a few days without pruritus [12]
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
