title: Feline fecal virome reveals novel and prevalent enteric viruses.
abstract: Humans keep more than 80 million cats worldwide, ensuring frequent exposure to their viruses. Despite such interactions the enteric virome of cats remains poorly understood. We analyzed a fecal sample from a single healthy cat from Portugal using viral metagenomics and detected five eukaryotic viral genomes. These viruses included a novel picornavirus (proposed genus "Sakobuvirus") and bocavirus (feline bocavirus 2), a variant of feline astrovirus 2 and sequence fragments of a highly divergent feline rotavirus and picobirnavirus. Feline sakobuvirus A represents the prototype species of a proposed new genus in the Picornaviridae family, distantly related to human salivirus and kobuvirus. Feline astroviruses (mamastrovirus 2) are the closest known relatives of the classic human astroviruses (mamastrovirus 1), suggestive of past cross-species transmission. Presence of these viruses by PCR among Portuguese cats was detected in 13% (rotavirus), 7% (astrovirus), 6% (bocavirus), 4% (sakobuvirus), and 4% (picobirnavirus) of 55 feline fecal samples. Co-infections were frequent with 40% (4/10) of infected cats shedding more than one of these five viruses. Our study provides an initial description of the feline fecal virome indicating a high level of asymptomatic infections. Availability of the genome sequences of these viruses will facilitate future tropism and feline disease association studies.
authors.affiliation: Blood Systems Research Institute, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA; Department of Laboratory Medicine, University of California at San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA.
authors.forename: Terry Fei Fan
authors.initials: TF
authors.lastname: Ng
authors.affiliation: Department of Animal Science, Rural Engineering and Veterinary, Polytechnic Institut of Viseu, Viseu, Portugal.
authors.forename: João Rodrigo
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Mesquita
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological Sciences, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Porto, Porto, Portugal.
authors.forename: Maria São José
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Nascimento
authors.affiliation: Blood Systems Research Institute, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA.
authors.forename: Nikola O
authors.initials: NO
authors.lastname: Kondov
authors.affiliation: Blood Systems Research Institute, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA.
authors.forename: Walt
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Wong
authors.affiliation: Regional Laboratory of Virology, ÁNTSZ Regional Institute of State Public Health Service, Pécs, Hungary.
authors.forename: Gábor
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Reuter
authors.affiliation: The Pirbright Institute, Woking, Surrey, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Nick J
authors.initials: NJ
authors.lastname: Knowles
authors.affiliation: NCIRD, National Calicivirus Laboratory, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA, USA.
authors.forename: Everardo
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Vega
authors.affiliation: GRVLB, Rotavirus Surveillance, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA, USA.
authors.forename: Mathew D
authors.initials: MD
authors.lastname: Esona
authors.affiliation: Blood Systems Research Institute, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA; Department of Laboratory Medicine, University of California at San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA.
authors.forename: Xutao
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Deng
authors.affiliation: NCIRD, National Calicivirus Laboratory, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA, USA.
authors.forename: Jan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Vinjé
authors.affiliation: Blood Systems Research Institute, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA; Department of Laboratory Medicine, University of California at San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA. Electronic address: delwarte@medicine.ucsf.edu.
authors.forename: Eric
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Delwart
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002415:Cats; D005243:Feces / Q000821:virology*; D016679:Genome, Viral / Q000235:genetics*; D056186:Metagenomics; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010802:Phylogeny; D011174:Portugal; D012367:RNA, Viral / Q000737:chemistry; D014780:Viruses / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics*
chemical_list: D012367:RNA, Viral
keywords: Enteric virus; Felis catus; Metagenomics; Sakobuvirus; Virome