- Title
- Incidence of norovirus from pig faecal samples in the Eastern Cape South Africa
- Creator
- Taku, Ongeziwe
- Subject
- Viral gastroenteritis Virus diseases Swine -- Diseases
- Date Issued
- 2017
- Date
- 2017
- Type
- Thesis
- Type
- Masters
- Type
- MSc
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/10353/12374
- Identifier
- vital:39257
- Description
- Norovirus is one of the causative agents of gastroenteritis in humans and belongs to the Caliciviridae family. Gastroenteritis is a common disease which has emerged as a worldwide health problem and it induces high number of diarrheal episodes in children and adults. Communal location such as schools, homes, day-care, cruise ships and hospitals have high risk of Norovirus infection. Besides humans, Norovirus have been found in farm animals including pigs; porcine Norovirus has been reported to be genetically related to human Norovirus which raise concerns about potential zoonotic spread and pigs may serve as reservoirs of human Norovirus strains. This current study assessed the occurrence of Norovirus infection amongst pigs in selected commercial pig farms in the Eastern Cape, South Africa. One hundred and twenty (120) RNA samples isolated from faecal samples of pigs were amplified using the RT-PCR and Nested PCR assay targeting the RdRp gene. Out of the one hundred and twenty RNA samples analysed, only five (4.2 percent) were positive for Norovirus. All positive isolates were sequenced (ABI 310 prism sequencer), edited and analysed phylogenetically using the Geneious version 9.1.5 software. Phylogenetic analysis of the generated sequences from the positive samples was performed with reference sequences obtained from the GenBank. Out of the five positive isolates analysed, four nucleotide sequences (FH14, FH20, FH13 and TS05) showed high similarity with Caliciviruses (non-human) and FHO5 showed high similarity to human Norovirus and clustered with human Norovirus GII. These findings revealed low prevalence of Norovirus in the Eastern Cape Province. Notwithstanding the low prevalence of Norovirus in the study communities, it is still of serious health concern.
- Format
- 75 leaves
- Format
- Publisher
- University of Fort Hare
- Publisher
- Faculty of Science and Agriculture
- Language
- English
- Rights
- University of Fort Hare
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