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Detection and Characterization of Avastrovirus Associated with Diarrhea Isolated from Minks in China

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Abstract

Astroviruses are becoming a growing concern in veterinary and public health. Many astrovirus species are associated with enteric diseases have been described in both mammalian and avian hosts. In the present study, 23 fecal samples from diarrheic minks were collected in Liaoning and Shandong Province, and an investigation of astrovirus was performed using biochemical methods and RT-PCR assay with specific primers. A total of four mink astroviral isolates were detected from sick minks with diarrhea problems. Further sequencing and characterization of the partial ORF1b gene and ORF2 gene segments revealed low sequence identities (20.0–85.3 and 31.8–87.2 %) with known astroviral strains, indicating the emergence of a novel clade of astroviruses. Some new features of the astroviral genome have also been discovered. The phylogenetic tree revealed that all samples were distantly related to mink astrovirus and were closely related to chicken astroviruses and turkey astroviruses. MK/DL-1, MK/DL-2, MK/SD-1, and MK/SD-2 formed a new clade and were found to be more closely related to astroviruses from birds than to other mink strains, indicating past cross-species transmission and considerable zoonotic potential.

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Acknowledgments

The author would like to thank Zhiming Zhang and all the staff of the Dalian Mingwei Mink Industry Company for providing the mink fecal samples. This work was supported by the Innovation Project Team for Special Economic Animal Disease Prevention and Control of Jilin Province (No. 20121823).

Conflict of interest

The author declares that there are no conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, or in publication of this article.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory for Molecular Biology of Special Economic Animals, Institute of Special Economic Animals and Plants Sciences, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences CAAS, No. 4899, Juye Street, Jingyue Economic Development Zone, Changchun, 130112, China

    Na Sun, Yong Yang, Xi-Qun Shao, Shu-Qin Zhang, Feng-Xue Wang, Bin Tan, Shi-Peng Cheng & Yong-Jun Wen

  2. Shandong Provincial Center for Animal Disease Control and Prevention, Jinan, People’s Republic of China

    Gui-Sheng Wang & Fu-Lin Tian

Authors
  1. Na Sun
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  2. Yong Yang
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  3. Gui-Sheng Wang
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  4. Xi-Qun Shao
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  5. Shu-Qin Zhang
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  6. Feng-Xue Wang
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  7. Bin Tan
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  8. Fu-Lin Tian
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  9. Shi-Peng Cheng
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  10. Yong-Jun Wen
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Correspondence to Yong-Jun Wen.

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Sun, N., Yang, Y., Wang, GS. et al. Detection and Characterization of Avastrovirus Associated with Diarrhea Isolated from Minks in China. Food Environ Virol 6, 169–174 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12560-014-9155-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12560-014-9155-3

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