Advances in Understanding and Combating Swine Viral Infections

About this Research Topic

Background

Swine viruses remain a major threat to animal health, food security, and global trade, with substantial economic impacts on pork-producing regions. This article collection spotlights mechanistic and translational advances in the pathogenesis, transmission, and control of key porcine viruses. Particular emphasis is placed on respiratory and systemic pathogens of high consequence—including swine influenza A virus (swIAV), porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (PRRSV), and African swine fever virus (ASFV)—that drive complex disease ecologies in farm settings. By integrating molecular virology, host–pathogen interactions, and population-level dynamics, the collection aligns with the section’s mission to elucidate infectious agents’ biology and inform evidence-based interventions that curb disease burden across production systems. These converging lines of inquiry are essential to mitigate outbreaks, safeguard animal welfare, and enhance agricultural sustainability.

The collection focuses on coinfection biology, immune modulation, and vaccine innovation. It highlights how co-circulating viruses—particularly swIAV and PRRSV—shape disease outcomes through synergistic or antagonistic interactions within the porcine respiratory tract. Innovative in vitro and ex vivo models, including differentiated airway epithelia and immune co-cultures, are leveraged to dissect antiviral signaling, epithelial–immune crosstalk, and barriers to sterilizing immunity. Parallel efforts probe immune evasion by ASFV, with an emphasis on viral proteins that subvert cGAS–STING, NF-κB, and interferon pathways, and how these mechanisms constrain vaccine efficacy. Together, these studies bridge fundamental mechanisms with applied countermeasures, accelerating rational vaccine design, adjuvant selection, and antiviral strategies tailored to the unique immunobiology of swine.

While the following themes on swine viral infections will guide the collection’s primary focus, submissions are not limited to these topics and complementary, high-quality studies are encouraged.

• Novel vaccine platforms (e.g., vectored, mRNA, nanoparticle, and epitope-focused designs) and adjuvants optimized for swine.

• Mechanistic studies of swIAV–PRRSV coinfections: replication kinetics, tissue tropism, and modulation of innate immune signaling.

• In vitro co-culture and organotypic airway models to simulate porcine respiratory coinfections and quantify synergistic antiviral responses.

• ASFV immune evasion: functional characterization of viral proteins that target cGAS–STING, NF-κB, JAK–STAT, and interferon-stimulated gene networks.

• Host genetic and transcriptomic determinants of susceptibility and resilience to swine viral infections during single and mixed infections.

• Systems immunology of vaccine responses against swIAV, PRRSV, and ASFV, including correlates of protection and durability of immunity.

• Mucosal immunity in the porcine respiratory tract: role of epithelial barriers, resident macrophages, dendritic cells, and trained immunity.

• Viral evolution and antigenic drift under vaccine or coinfection pressure; implications for cross-protection and vaccine strain selection.

• Antiviral therapeutics and immunomodulators: targeting host pathways versus direct-acting antivirals, and resistance considerations.

• One Health and epidemiological perspectives on farm-level transmission, biosecurity, and modeling of infection dynamics.

• Diagnostics and surveillance innovations for early detection of coinfections and immune escape variants in swine populations.

Topic Editor, Dr. François Meurens, received financial support from CEVA-BioVac and Glycovax. The other Topic Editors declare no competing interests with regard to the Research Topic subject.

Article types and fees

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• General Commentary
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• Opinion
• Original Research
• Perspective
• ... View all formats

Articles that are accepted for publication by our external editors following rigorous peer review incur a publishing fee charged to Authors, institutions, or funders.

Article types

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• General Commentary
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• Opinion
• Original Research
• Perspective
• Review
• Systematic Review
• Technology and Code

Keywords: African swine fever virus (ASFV), Antiviral therapeutics, Diagnostics, Host–pathogen interactions, Immune evasion, Immunomodulators, Mucosal immunity, Porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (PRRSV), Respiratory tract models, Swine health, Swi

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.

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