Real-Time Reverse Transcription PCR Assay for Detection of Senecavirus A in Swine Vesicular Diagnostic Specimens

Senecavirus A (SV-A), formerly, Seneca Valley virus (SVV), has been detected in swine with vesicular lesions and is thought to be associated with swine idiopathic vesicular disease (SIVD), a vesicular disease syndrome that lacks a defined causative agent. The clinical presentation of SIVD resembles that of other more contagious and economically devastating vesicular diseases, such as foot-and-mouth disease (FMD), swine vesicular disease (SVD), and vesicular stomatitis (VS), that typically require immediate rule out diagnostics to lift restrictions on animal quarantine, movement, and trade. This study presents the development of a sensitive, SYBR Green RT-qPCR assay suitable for detection of SV-A in diagnostic swine specimens. After testing 50 pigs with clinical signs consistent with vesicular disease, 44 (88%) were found to be positive for SV-A by RT-qPCR as compared to none from a negative cohort of 35 animals without vesicular disease, indicating that the assay is able to successfully detect the virus in an endemic population. SV-A RNA was also detectable at a low level in sera from a subset of pigs that presented with (18%) or without (6%) vesicular signs. In 2015, there has been an increase in the occurrence of SV-A in the US, and over 200 specimens submitted to our laboratory for vesicular investigation have tested positive for the virus using this method. SV-A RNA was detectable in all common types of vesicular specimens including swabs and tissue from hoof lesions, oral and snout epithelium, oral swabs, scabs, and internal organ tissues such as liver and lymph node. Genome sequencing analysis from recent virus isolates was performed to confirm target amplicon specificity and was aligned to previous isolates.