title: Detection of diverse novel astroviruses from small mammals in China.
abstract: Astroviruses infect humans and many animal species and cause gastroenteritis. To extensively understand the distribution and genetic diversity of astrovirus in small mammals, we tested 968 anal swabs from 39 animal species, most of which were bats and rodents. We detected diverse astroviruses in 10 bat species, including known bat astroviruses and a large number of novel viruses. Meanwhile, novel groups of astroviruses were identified in three wild rodent species and a remarkably high genetic diversity of astrovirus was revealed in Eothenomys cachinus. We detected astroviruses in captive-bred porcupines and a nearly full-length genome sequence was determined for one strain. Phylogenetic analysis of the complete ORF2 sequence suggested that this strain may share a common ancestor with porcine astrovirus type 2. Moreover, to our knowledge, this study reports the first discovery of astroviruses in shrews and pikas. Our results provide new insights for understanding these small mammals as natural reservoirs of astroviruses.
authors.affiliation: Center for Emerging Infectious Diseases, CAS Key Laboratory of Special Pathogens and Biosafety, Wuhan Institute of Virology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan 430071, PR China.
authors.forename: Ben
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Hu
authors.affiliation: EcoHealth Alliance, New York, NY 10001, USA.
authors.forename: Aleksei A
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Chmura
authors.affiliation: Center for Emerging Infectious Diseases, CAS Key Laboratory of Special Pathogens and Biosafety, Wuhan Institute of Virology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan 430071, PR China.
authors.forename: Jialu
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: EcoHealth Alliance, New York, NY 10001, USA.
authors.forename: Guangjian
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.affiliation: EcoHealth Alliance, New York, NY 10001, USA.
authors.forename: James S
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Desmond
authors.affiliation: Yunnan Institute of Endemic Diseases Control and Prevention, Dali, PR China.
authors.forename: Yunzhi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Center for Emerging Infectious Diseases, CAS Key Laboratory of Special Pathogens and Biosafety, Wuhan Institute of Virology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan 430071, PR China.
authors.forename: Wei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: EcoHealth Alliance, New York, NY 10001, USA.
authors.forename: Jonathan H
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Epstein
authors.affiliation: EcoHealth Alliance, New York, NY 10001, USA.
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Daszak
authors.affiliation: Center for Emerging Infectious Diseases, CAS Key Laboratory of Special Pathogens and Biosafety, Wuhan Institute of Virology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan 430071, PR China.
authors.forename: Zhengli
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Shi
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D003411:Arvicolinae / Q000821:virology; D002681:China; D002685:Chiroptera / Q000821:virology; D014644:Genetic Variation; D016679:Genome, Viral; D007793:Lagomorpha / Q000821:virology; D001257:Mamastrovirus / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics* / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D008322:Mammals / Q000821:virology*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010802:Phylogeny; D012377:Rodentia / Q000821:virology; D012788:Shrews / Q000821:virology