Abstract
Porcine parvovirus (PPV) is a non-enveloped, single-stranded linear DNA virus that induces reproductive disorders in sows, particularly abortions in primiparous sows. This study investigated the prevalence of PPV in the southwestern region and conducted molecular characterization of PPV strains. An epidemiological survey was conducted on 1534 aborted fetuses from the southwestern region between 2020 and 2023, revealing an abortion rate of 3.00% due to PPV2, with the highest rate of 3.77% in Sichuan. Additionally, 2973 blood samples from sows were tested using ELISA, showing a PPV2 antibody positivity rate of 73.03% to 90%. Through shotgun metagenomics, PPV2 SC2020 was identified in aborted fetal samples from a pig farm in Pengzhou, Sichuan. PCR sequencing analysis yielded seven PPV2 genomic sequences, and the phylogenetic analysis of eight PPV2 strains with thirty reference strains showed distinct evolutionary branches. The virus was successfully isolated from PPV2-positive samples, and the phylogenetic analysis of PPV2 SC2020 revealed ORF1 gene homology of 94.9% to 99.3% and the ORF2 gene homology of 93.1% to 98.0%, with 34 reference strains. Homologous recombination analysis indicated that SC2020 is a recombinant strain of HeB03 and S1.