Detection of live attenuated influenza vaccine virus and evidence of reassortment in the U.S. swine population

Influenza vaccines historically have been multivalent, whole virus inactivated products. The first bivalent, intranasal, live attenuated influenza vaccine (LAIV; Ingelvac Provenza), with H1N1 and H3N2 subtypes, has been approved for use in swine. We investigated the LAIV hemagglutinin (HA) sequences in diagnostic cases submitted to the Iowa State University Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory and potential vaccine virus reassortment with endemic influenza A virus (IAV) in swine. From January 3 to October 11, 2018, IAV HA sequences demonstrating 99.5–99.9% nucleotide homology to the H1 HA or 99.4–100% nucleotide homology to the H3 HA parental strains in the LAIV were detected in 58 of 1,116 (5.2%) porcine respiratory cases (H1 HA A/swine/Minnesota/37866/1999[H1N1; MN99]; H3 HA A/swine/Texas/4199-2/1998[H3N2; TX98]). Nine cases had co-detection of HA genes from LAIV and wild-type IAV in the same specimen. Thirty-five cases had associated epidemiologic information that indicated they were submitted from 11 states representing 31 individual sites and 17 production systems in the United States. Whole genome sequences from 11 cases and another subset of 2 plaque-purified IAV were included in our study. Ten whole genome sequences, including 1 plaque-purified IAV, contained at least one internal gene from endemic IAV detected within the past 3 y. Phylogenetic analysis of whole genome sequences indicated that reassortment occurred between vaccine virus and endemic field strains circulating in U.S. swine. Our data highlight the need and importance of continued IAV surveillance to detect emerging IAV with LAIV genes in the swine population.