title: Cosavirus, Salivirus and Bufavirus in Diarrheal Tunisian Infants.
abstract: Three newly discovered viruses have been recently described in diarrheal patients: Cosavirus (CosV) and Salivirus (SalV), two picornaviruses, and Bufavirus (BuV), a parvovirus. The detection rate and the role of these viruses remain to be established in acute gastroenteritis (AGE) in diarrheal Tunisian infants. From October 2010 through March 2012, stool samples were collected from 203 children <5 years-old suffering from AGE and attending the Children's Hospital in Monastir, Tunisia. All samples were screened for CosV, SalV and BuV as well as for norovirus (NoV) and group A rotavirus (RVA) by molecular biology. Positive samples for the three screened viruses were also tested for astrovirus, sapovirus, adenovirus, and Aichi virus, then genotyped when technically feasible. During the study period, 11 (5.4%) samples were positive for one of the three investigated viruses: 2 (1.0%) CosV-A10, 7 (3.5%) SalV-A1 and 2 (1.0%) BuV-1, whereas 71 (35.0%) children were infected with NoV and 50 (24.6%) with RVA. No mixed infections involving the three viruses were found, but multiple infections with up to 4 classic enteric viruses were found in all cases. Although these viruses are suspected to be responsible for AGE in children, our data showed that this association was uncertain since all infected children also presented infections with several enteric viruses, suggesting here potential water-borne transmission. Therefore, further studies with large cohorts of healthy and diarrheal children will be needed to evaluate their clinical role in AGE.
authors.affiliation: Centre National de Référence des virus entériques, Laboratoire de virologie-sérologie, Pôle Technique de Biologie, CHU de Dijon, Dijon, France.|Faculté de Pharmacie, Université de Monastir, Monastir, Tunisie.
authors.forename: Siwar
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ayouni
authors.affiliation: Centre National de Référence des virus entériques, Laboratoire de virologie-sérologie, Pôle Technique de Biologie, CHU de Dijon, Dijon, France.
authors.forename: Marie
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Estienney
authors.affiliation: Service de Pédiatrie, Hôpital Universitaire Fattouma-Bourguiba, Monastir, Tunisie.|Faculté de Médicine, Université de Monastir, Monastir, Tunisie.
authors.forename: Sabeur
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Hammami
authors.affiliation: Service de Pédiatrie, Hôpital Universitaire Fattouma-Bourguiba, Monastir, Tunisie.|Faculté de Médicine, Université de Monastir, Monastir, Tunisie.
authors.forename: Mohamed
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Neji Guediche
authors.affiliation: Centre National de Référence des virus entériques, Laboratoire de virologie-sérologie, Pôle Technique de Biologie, CHU de Dijon, Dijon, France.|UMR PAM A 02.102 Procédés Alimentaires et Microbiologiques, Université de Bourgogne Franche-Comté/AgroSup Dijon, Dijon, France.
authors.forename: Pierre
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Pothier
authors.affiliation: Faculté de Pharmacie, Université de Monastir, Monastir, Tunisie.
authors.forename: Mahjoub
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Aouni
authors.affiliation: Centre National de Référence des virus entériques, Laboratoire de virologie-sérologie, Pôle Technique de Biologie, CHU de Dijon, Dijon, France.|UMR PAM A 02.102 Procédés Alimentaires et Microbiologiques, Université de Bourgogne Franche-Comté/AgroSup Dijon, Dijon, France.
authors.forename: Gael
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Belliot
authors.affiliation: Centre National de Référence des virus entériques, Laboratoire de virologie-sérologie, Pôle Technique de Biologie, CHU de Dijon, Dijon, France.|UMR PAM A 02.102 Procédés Alimentaires et Microbiologiques, Université de Bourgogne Franche-Comté/AgroSup Dijon, Dijon, France.
authors.forename: Alexis
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-3084-9414
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: de Rougemont
mesh_terms: D002675:Child, Preschool; D003967:Diarrhea / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000821:virology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D017992:Parvovirus / Q000145:classification / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D010802:Phylogeny; D010849:Picornaviridae / Q000145:classification / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D014416:Tunisia / Q000453:epidemiology