Survival of Porcine teschovirus as a surrogate virus on pork chops during storage at 2 °C

• PTV was reduced by ≥ 1.8 log PFU and 0.6 log GC/cm2 after 7 weeks at 2 °C.
• Viable PTV was detected after 6 weeks of incubation at 2 °C.
• Viable PTV is less stable than MS2 and MNV on meat.
• Potential of PTV as a surrogate and indicator virus for HEV is discussed.

Due to the lack of an efficient cultivation system, little is known about the stability and inactivation of hepatitis E virus (HEV). In addition, there is a lack of information on which cultivable virus(es) are suitable as model or surrogate viruses for HEV. Murine norovirus (MNV) and F-RNA coliphage MS2 are potential surrogates and F-RNA coliphages are a potential indicator for enteric viruses. However, the numbers of F-RNA coliphages excreted by swine are relatively low. In contrast, Porcine teschovirus (PTV) is cultivable and is excreted abundantly. PTV is readily detected on swine carcasses and the potential of PTV as a viral indicator of fecal contamination on hog carcasses is currently being explored, however, there is no information on the environmental stability of PTV. The survival of PTV was determined on vacuum packaged pork chops during storage at 2 °C using cultivation and molecular techniques and compared to published data on the survival of MNV and MS2 under similar conditions. Viable PTV was reduced by ≥ 1.8 log units compared to a reduction of 0.6 log genomic copies after 7 weeks. The viability data indicates that PTV is less stable than MS2 and MNV during storage at 2 °C whereas similar reductions in genomic copies were observed for all 3 viruses. This study provides data on the survival of PTV on pork and insight on the potential of PTV as a surrogate for HEV in the pork processing chain.