Wu Liyan, Ou Jiajun, Cai Siqi, Ji Jinzhao, Ren Zixin, Shao Ran, Li Shoujun
College of Veterinary Medicine, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, People's Republic of China.
Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Prevention and Control for Severe Clinical Animal Diseases, Guangzhou, Guangdong, People's Republic of China.
Virus Genes. 2020 Dec;56(6):777-780. doi: 10.1007/s11262-020-01792-y. Epub 2020 Sep 22.
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.
马肝炎病毒（EqHV）是一种新发现的马病毒，归类于黄病毒科肝炎病毒属。EqHV在全球有三个亚型，即1 - 3型。EqHV 1型毒株大多在中国被发现。虽然在日本和美国发现了不同亚型，因此，为调查中国是否存在EqHV其他亚型毒株，共采集了60份马血清样本，并通过逆转录聚合酶链反应（RT-PCR）筛查EqHV RNA。结果显示，19份血清样本RNA呈阳性（19/60），EqHV检出率为31.67%。获得了一株名为GD23的EqHV毒株，并获取了其近全长基因组序列。参照整个多聚蛋白基因对核苷酸p距离进行分析表明，GD23被归类为3型。此外，系统发育分析表明，GD23与其他国家的3型EqHV毒株聚集在一起。本研究首次在中国鉴定出EqHV 3型毒株。
