In the Search of Marine Pestiviruses: First Case of Phocoena Pestivirus in a Belt Sea Harbour Porpoise

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 unkn...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Viruses
Main Authors: Iben Stokholm, Nicole Fischer, Christine Baechlein, Alexander Postel, Anders Galatius, Line Anker Kyhn, Charlotte Bie Thøstesen, Sara Persson, Ursula Siebert, Morten Tange Olsen, Paul Becher
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2022
Subjects:
Phocoena pestivirus
Pinnipeds
cetaceans
marine mammals
viral phylogeny
Bayesian phylogenetic analysis
Microbiology
QR1-502
Harbour porpoise
Phoca vitulina
Phocoena phocoena
Pusa hispida
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.3390/v14010161
https://doaj.org/article/18a7465c0f4a44a28c0e04a6a2ce786f
Description
Summary: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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