Detection of Diverse Novel Bat Astrovirus Sequences in the Czech Republic.
Astroviruses are a major cause of gastroenteritis in humans and animals. Recently, novel groups of astroviruses were identified in apparently healthy insectivorous bats. We report the detection of diverse novel astrovirus sequences in nine different European bat species: Eptesicus serotinus, Hypsugo savii, Myotis emarginatus, M. mystacinus, Nyctalus noctula, Pipistrellus nathusii or P. pygmaeus, P. pipistrellus, Vespertilio murinus, and Rhinolophus hipposideros. In six bat species, astrovirus sequences were detected for the first time. One astrovirus strain detected in R. hipposideros clustered phylogenetically with Chinese astrovirus strains originating from bats of the families Rhinolophidae and Hipposideridae. All other Czech astrovirus sequences from vesper bats formed, together with one Hungarian sequence, a separate monophyletic lineage within the bat astrovirus group. These findings provide new insights into the molecular epidemiology, ecology, and prevalence of astroviruses in European bat populations.
1 Department of Virology, Veterinary Research Institute , Brno, Czech Republic .
Lucie
L
Dufkova
1 Department of Virology, Veterinary Research Institute , Brno, Czech Republic .|2 Faculty of Science, Masaryk University , Brno, Czech Republic .
Petra
P
Straková
1 Department of Virology, Veterinary Research Institute , Brno, Czech Republic .
Jana
J
Širmarová
1 Department of Virology, Veterinary Research Institute , Brno, Czech Republic .
Jiří
J
Salát
1 Department of Virology, Veterinary Research Institute , Brno, Czech Republic .
Romana
R
Moutelíková
3 Institute of Soil Biology, Biology Centre of the Czech Academy of Sciences , České Budějovice, Czech Republic .
Tomáš
T
Chrudimský
2 Faculty of Science, Masaryk University , Brno, Czech Republic .
Tomáš
T
Bartonička
4 Viral Zoonoses, Emerging and Vector-Borne Infections Group, Institute of Virology, University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna , Vienna, Austria .|5 Department of Microbiology and Immunology, College of Medicine and Health Sciences, Sultan Qaboos University , Muscat, Oman .
Norbert
N
Nowotny
1 Department of Virology, Veterinary Research Institute , Brno, Czech Republic .|2 Faculty of Science, Masaryk University , Brno, Czech Republic .|6 Institute of Parasitology, Biology Centre of the Czech Academy of Sciences , České Budějovice, Czech Republic .
Daniel
D
Růžek
D000818:Animals; D019200:Astroviridae / Q000235:genetics* / Q000302:isolation & purification; D019350:Astroviridae Infections / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000662:veterinary* / Q000821:virology; D001483:Base Sequence; D002685:Chiroptera / Q000821:virology*; D018153:Czech Republic / Q000453:epidemiology; D005759:Gastroenteritis / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000662:veterinary* / Q000821:virology; D014644:Genetic Variation; D016679:Genome, Viral / Q000235:genetics*; D006801:Humans; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010802:Phylogeny; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA
Astrovirus; Bat; Novel viruses; Phylogenetic analysis