Genetic variation of nucleocapsid genes of porcine epidemic diarrhea virus field strains in China

Porcine epidemic diarrhea virus (PEDV) poses a great threat to the Chinese swine industry. During 2006–2011, 74.0 % (94/127) of samples from 32 swine-raising farms in 15 provinces were positive for PEDV by reverse transcription nested polymerase chain reaction (RT-nested PCR). The sequences of nucleocapsid (N) genes of 32 representative field strains were determined, and the open reading frames (ORFs) of these N genes were 1326 nucleotides long. The N gene sequences were found to be more than 95 % identical to each other. The number of potential phosphorylation sites in the N protein varied from 5 to 12. A phylogenetic tree based on the N genes showed that the 32 Chinese field strains formed three groups.