title: Three clusters of Saffold viruses circulating in children with diarrhea in Japan.
abstract: Saffold virus (SAFV) is a newly discovered human virus in the genus Cardiovirus, family Picornaviridae. The virus was first described from fecal specimens of a child with fever of unknown origin in 2007. A total of 454 fecal specimens were collected from children with diarrhea attended clinics in Japan, 2010-2011, 7 (1.5%) were positive for SAFV. Mixed-infections of SAFV and other enteric viruses (rotavirus, norovirus, and bocavirus) were found in four out of seven cases, while monoinfection by SAFV alone was detected in three cases. In addition to diarrhea, fever and vomiting were observed in three children and mild dehydration in one case. No particular symptoms of cough and rhinorrhea were noted. Analysis of partial VP1 nucleotide sequence of 7 Japanese SAFV strains revealed that 5 SAFV sequences were most closely related with SAFV2 reference strains, but separated into SAFV2-A (3 strains) and SAFV2-B (2 strains). In addition, the other two strains were classified as SAFV3. Our results indicated that SAFVs (SAFV2 and SAFV3) were circulated in children with acute gastroenteritis in Japan during 2010 and 2011 epidemic season.
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Medicine, Chiang Mai University, Chiang Mai, Thailand.
authors.forename: Pattara
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Khamrin
authors.forename: Aksara
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Thongprachum
authors.forename: Hideaki
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Kikuta
authors.forename: Atsuko
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Yamamoto
authors.forename: Shuichi
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Nishimura
authors.forename: Kumiko
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Sugita
authors.forename: Tsuneyoshi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Baba
authors.forename: Masaaki
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kobayashi
authors.forename: Shoko
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Okitsu
authors.forename: Satoshi
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Hayakawa
authors.forename: Hiroyuki
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Shimizu
authors.forename: Niwat
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Maneekarn
authors.forename: Hiroshi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Ushijima
mesh_terms: D036022:Capsid Proteins / Q000235:genetics; D017943:Cardiovirus / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics*; D018188:Cardiovirus Infections / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000821:virology*; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003967:Diarrhea / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000821:virology*; D005260:Female; D005838:Genotype; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007564:Japan / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010802:Phylogeny
chemical_list: D036022:Capsid Proteins