Emergence of Fatal PRRSV Variants: Unparalleled Outbreaks of Atypical PRRS in China and Molecular Dissection of the Unique Hallmark

Porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS) is a severe viral disease in pigs, causing great economic losses worldwide each year. The causative agent of the disease, PRRS virus (PRRSV), is a member of the family Arteriviridae. Here we report our investigation of the unparalleled large-scale outbreaks of an originally unknown, but so-called "high fever" disease in China in 2006 with the essence of PRRS, which spread to more than 10 provinces (autonomous cities or regions) and affected over 2,000,000 pigs with about 400,000 fatal cases. Different from the typical PRRS, numerous adult sows were also infected by the "high fever" disease. This atypical PRRS pandemic was initially identified as a hog…

• IS
  Iowa State University
• UO
  University of Oxford
• MO
  Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology
• NN
  National Natural Science Foundation of China

  Award: 30525010
• TU
  Tsinghua University
• NK
  National Key Research and Development Program of China

  Awards: 2005CB523001, 2006BAD06A04