Pig anelloviruses are highly prevalent in swine herds in France

A survey of anelloviruses in swine herds from Britanny, France, is reported. By using PCR targeted to the conserved untranslated region, prevalences of 93 and 73 % were found among 15 herds and 33 animals, respectively. The lung was the organ found to be positive most frequently among the five organs tested from 32 animals. The highest identity levels of our nucleotide sequences were found with pig isolates from Japan and with an isolate from Tupaia belangeri. Interestingly, when aligning all available swine isolates from France and Japan, at least two phylogenetic groups were identified, each one containing clones from France and Japan. Some animals carried clones from both groups, demonstrating intra-individual variability. Despite the putative harmlessness of anelloviruses, the potential inoculum carried by pigs must be further evaluated as a sanitary threat.