Molecular characterization and phylogenetic analysis of VP1 of porcine enteric picornaviruses isolates in Italy.

Porcine enterovirus (PEV), Porcine Teschovirus and Porcine sapelovirus, belonging to the family Picornaviridae, are ubiquitous and mainly cause asymptomatic infections in pigs. In this study, a total of 40 Italian porcine picornavirus isolates were characterized by sequencing the capsid VP1-encoding gene. This procedure turned out to be a useful diagnostic tool for the molecular identification of porcine enterovirus, teschovirus and sapelovirus strains and for the study of molecular epidemiology and evolution of these viruses confirming the possibility of correlating virus genotype to serotype.