Abstract
Equine Hepacivirus (EqHV) is a newly discovered equine virus that is classified under the Hepacivirus genus of the Flaviviridae family. There are three sub-types of EqHV worldwide namely; sub-types 1–3. The majority of EqHV sub-type 1 strains were found in China. While different sub-types have been found in Japan and USA, therefore, to investigate whether the other sub-types of EqHV strains were present in China, a total of 60 horse serum samples were collected and screened for EqHV RNA through RT-PCR. The results revealed that 19 serum samples were RNA-positive (19/60) and the EqHV detection rate was 31.67%. One EqHV strain named GD23 was obtained and its near-complete genome sequence was acquired. Analysis of nucleotide p-distance with reference to the entire polyprotein gene revealed that GD23 was classified into sub-type 3. In addition, the phylogenetic analysis demonstrated that GD23 was clustered together with EqHV strains of sub-type 3 in other countries. The present study is the first to identify an EqHV sub-type 3 strain in China.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
References
Chan ST, Ou JJ (2017) Hepatitis C virus-induced autophagy and host innate immune response. Viruses 9(8):224
Kapoor A, Simmonds P, Gerold G et al (2011) Characterization of a canine homolog of hepatitis C virus. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 108(28):11608–11613
Burbelo PD, Dubovi EJ, Simmonds P et al (2012) Serology-enabled discovery of genetically diverse hepaciviruses in a new host. J Virol 86(11):6171–6178
Kapoor A, Simmonds P, Scheel TK et al (2013) Identification of rodent homologs of hepatitis C virus and pegiviruses. MBio 4(2):e00216-13
Quan PL, Firth C, Conte JM et al (2013) Bats are a major natural reservoir for hepaciviruses and pegiviruses. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 110(20):8194–8199
Lu G, Sun L, Xu T et al (2016) First description of hepacivirus and pegivirus infection in domestic horses in China: a study in Guangdong Province, Heilongjiang Province and Hong Kong District. PLoS ONE 11(5):e0155662
Lu G, Ou J, Sun Y et al (2019) Natural recombination of equine hepacivirus sub-type 1 within the NS5A and NS5B genes. Virology 533:93–98
Acknowledgements
This work was supported by The National Natural Science Foundation of China (31372448, 31672563), The Special Fund for Agro-scientific Research in the Public Interest (201303042), The National Key Research and Development Program of China (2016YFD0501004, 2016YFD0501010), The Promote Scientific and Technological Development Program (2013B040200032), The Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Prevention and Control for Severe Clinical Animal Diseases (2013A061401013).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Contributions
LW, JO, SC, JJ, ZR, RS have contributed to material collection and conduct the experiments. Meanwhile LW writing the manuscript.
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of interest
The authors declare no conflict of interest.
Ethical approval
No studies involving human participants or animals performed by any of the authors are described in this article.
Additional information
Edited by Takeshi Noda.
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Electronic supplementary material
Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Wu, L., Ou, J., Cai, S. et al. First identification and genomic characterization of equine hepacivirus sub-type 3 strain in China. Virus Genes 56, 777–780 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11262-020-01792-y
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11262-020-01792-y