Discovery of genome of an immunodeficiency-associated virus-like virus from pig feces in Japan

Immunodeficiency-associated stool virus (IASV) is an unclassified virus, for which the only genome information is available from a patient infected by human immunodeficiency virus. In domestic animals, one report described detection of IASV-like virus in pig feces, whereas no nucleotide sequence information of this virus is currently available. Using deep sequencing method, we detected a DNA fragment homologous to IASV in several pig feces in Japan. The sequence of the PCR product in this sample had 70% homology to that of IASV. The infectious rate of the IASV-like virus was 72.9% among the 9 pig farms, from which the samples were collected. There was no clear correlation between the presence of IASV-like virus and the fecal characteristics.