Experimental infection of gnotobiotic pigs with the cell-culture-adapted porcine deltacoronavirus strain OH-FD22

Porcine deltacoronavirus (PDCoV) is a novel enteropathogenic coronavirus in pigs. We have isolated and passaged the PDCoV strain OH-FD22 in an LLC porcine kidney (LLC-PK) cell line. Our study investigated the pathogenicity of the tissue-culture-grown PDCoV (TC-PDCoV) OH-FD22 at cell passages 5, 20 and 40 in LLC-PK cells, in eight 14-day-old gnotobiotic (Gn) pigs. Pigs (n = 3) were euthanized for pathologic examination at post-inoculation day (PID) 3, and the remainder were monitored for clinical signs, virus shedding, and serum antibody responses until PID 28. All inoculated pigs developed watery diarrhea and/or vomiting at PID 1-2 and shed the highest amount of viral RNA in feces at PID 3-5, accompanied by severe atrophic enteritis. They developed high titers of PDCoV-specific IgG/IgA and virus-neutralizing antibodies in serum at PID 23-24. Histologic lesions were limited to the villous epithelium of the jejunum and ileum at PID 3. Two inoculated pigs tested at PID 23-24 had small to moderate numbers of PDCoV antigen-positive cells in the intestinal lamina propria and mesenteric lymph nodes, but not in enterocytes. An analysis of full-length S and N genes of TC- and Gn-pig-passaged OH-FD22 revealed a high genetic stability in cell culture and pigs. TC-PDCoV OH-FD22 (cell passages 5, 20 and 40) was enteropathogenic, and the pathogenicity was similar to that of the original field virus. The TC-PDCoV OH-FD22 will be useful for further pathogenesis studies and for evaluating if higher-level cell-culture passaged virus becomes attenuated for vaccine development.