Detection and genetic characterization of atypical porcine pestivirus in wild boars in European Russia

Atypical porcine pestivirus (APPeV), currently known as Pestivirus scrofae , is common in domestic pigs of many countries in Europe, Asia, and America. In Russia, through a retrospective study, its circulation among domestic pigs has been confirmed since at least 2020. However, in the wild boar population, the presence of the virus remained unstudied. In this study a molecular survey was carried out in European Russia to investigate the virus circulation in the wild boars. In total, 445 tissue samples obtained from 236 wild boars hunted across seven regions of European Russia in the period of 2021–2025 were tested by qRT-PCR. The virus was found to be widespread among the population, with a total positive ratio of 9.7% (23/236). Specifically, APPeV was identified in wild boars across four regions (Moscow, Tver, Belgorod, and Tula), with detection rates ranging from 10.5 to 33.3%. It was established that the virus has been circulated in the wild boars since at least 2021. For phylogeny, a total of 13 partial sequences of the NS2-NS3 region were derived. Russian isolates exhibited high genetic variability and were distributed into three distinct clades. Two clades consisted solely of isolates identified in the present study. The nucleotide sequence identity between the Russian isolates varied from 86.1 to 99.1% and from 74.0 to 93.5% with strains from GenBank. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report on APPeV circulation among wild boars in the territory of Russia.