Abstract
Porcine epidemic diarrhea virus (PEDV) has caused devastating enteric disease in Korean pig farms since its first identification in 1992 in Korea. In the present study, the molecular epidemiology, genetic diversity, and phylogenetic relationship of Korean PEDV field isolates to other reference strains were analyzed using the complete E gene. Genetic analysis showed that each PEDV group had several unique characteristics, which indicated that a specific group PEDVs may be differentiated from another group PEDVs. Phylogenetic analysis showed that recent prevalent Korean PEDV field isolates are closely related to the Chinese field strains and differ genetically from the European strains and the vaccine strains used in Korea, which raises questions of whether a new-type PEDV vaccine may be necessary for preventing PEDV infection more effectively in Korea. Notably, a large deletion identified only in the attenuated DR13 can be utilized as a genetic marker, and the methods developed in this study will help to rapidly detect and differentiate PEDVs.