Detection of novel astroviruses in urban brown rats and previously known astroviruses in humans

• Published in: Journal of general virology Vol. 91; no. Pt 10; pp. 2457 - 2462
• Main Authors: CHU, Daniel K. W, CHIN, Alex W. H, SMITH, Gavin J, CHAN, Kwok-Hung, YI GUAN, PEIRIS, J. S. Malik, POON, Leo L. M
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Reading Society for General Microbiology 01-10-2010; Microbiology Society
• Subjects: Animal; Animals; Astroviridae; Astroviridae - classification; Astroviridae - genetics; Astroviridae - isolation & purification; Astroviridae Infections; Astroviridae Infections - epidemiology; Astroviridae Infections - veterinary; Astroviridae Infections - virology; Biological and medical sciences; Cities; Cluster Analysis; Feces; Feces - virology; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Hong Kong; Hong Kong - epidemiology; Humans; Life Sciences; Microbiology; Microbiology and Parasitology; Miscellaneous; Molecular Sequence Data; Phylogeny; Prevalence; Rats; RNA, Viral; RNA, Viral - genetics; Rodent Diseases; Rodent Diseases - virology; Sequence Analysis, DNA; Virology; Hong Kong; Human; Vertebrata; Mammalia; Rat; Detection; Rodentia
• ISSN: 0022-1317; 1465-2099
• DOI: 10.1099/vir.0.022764-0

Several novel astroviruses have been recently discovered in humans and in other animals. Here, we report results from our surveillance of astroviruses in human and rodent faecal samples in Hong Kong. Classical human astroviruses (n=9) and a human MLB1 astrovirus were detected in human faecal samples (n=622). Novel astroviruses were detected from 1.6 % of the faecal samples of urban brown rat (Rattus norvegicus) (n=441), indicating the prevalence of astrovirus infection in rats might be much lower than that recently observed in bats. These rat astroviruses were phylogenetically related to recently discovered human astroviruses MLB1 and MLB2, suggesting that the MLB viruses and these novel rat astroviruses may share a common ancestor.