Porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (PRRSV) causes major problems for the swine industry worldwide.\nDue to Austria�s central location in Europe, a large number of animals are transported through the country.\nHowever, little is known about current PRRSV strains and epidemiology. We determined full-length genome\nsequences of two Austrian field isolates (AUT13-883 and AUT14-440) from recent PRRSV outbreaks and of a related\nGerman isolate (GER09-613). Phylogenetic analysis revealed that the strains belong to European genotype 1 subtype\n1 and form a cluster together with a South Korean strain. Remarkably, AUT14-440 infected the simian cell line MARC-\n145 without prior adaptation. In addition, this isolate showed exceptional deletions in nonstructural protein 2, in the\noverlapping region of glycoprotein 3 and 4 and in the 3� untranslated region. Both Austrian isolates caused similar\nlung lesions but only pigs infected with AUT14-440 developed clear clinical signs of infection. Taken together, the\ngenetic and biological characterization of two novel Austrian PRRSV field isolates revealed similarities to East Asian\nstrains. This stresses the necessity for a more detailed analysis of current PRRSV strains in Europe beyond the determination\nof short ORF5 and ORF7 sequences.
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