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Journal of Clinical Microbiology, June 2008, p. 1907-1913, Vol. 46, No. 6
0095-1137/08/$08.00+0 doi:10.1128/JCM.00341-08
Copyright © 2008, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Department of Public Health and Zootecnic, University of Bari, Valenzano, Bari, Italy,1 Veterinary Medical Research Institute, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest, Hungary,2 Food Animal Health Research Program, Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center, Department of Veterinary Preventive Medicine, The Ohio State University, Wooster, Ohio 44691,3 Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale di Lombardia/Emilia Romagna, Brescia, Italy,4 Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Dipartimento di Sanità Alimentare e Animale, Rome, Italy5
Received 19 February 2008/ Returned for modification 20 March 2008/ Accepted 27 March 2008
Whether animals may act as reservoirs for human caliciviruses is unclear. By sequence analysis of a short fragment of the RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp) region, porcine sapovirus (SaV) strains that genetically resemble human SaVs have been detected in piglets, but more-informative sequences (capsid gene) were not available for a precise characterization. In this study, the 3' terminus (the 3' end of open reading frame 1 [ORF1], including the polymerase complex and the complete capsid; ORF2; and the 3' untranslated region) of one such human SaV-like strain, 43/06-18p3/2006/It, was determined, revealing that these viruses are more related genetically to human (47.4 to 54.9% amino acid identity) than to animal (35.2 to 44.7% amino acid identity) SaVs in the capsid gene. In addition, the recombination-prone RdRp-capsid junction region was highly conserved with those of human SaVs of genogroup GI. The presence of porcine viruses similar to human SaVs is a significant finding because of the potential for zoonotic infections or generation of porcine/human recombinants.
Published ahead of print on 16 April 2008.
| Antimicrob. Agents Chemother. | Clin. Microbiol. Rev. |
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| Clin. Vaccine Immunol. | ALL ASM JOURNALS |
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