First report of a novel goose astrovirus outbreak in Muscovy ducklings in China

Qinxi Chen; Zhengli Yu; Xin Xu; Jun Ji; Lunguang Yao; Yunchao Kan; Yingzuo Bi; Qingmei Xie

doi:10.1016/j.psj.2021.101407

First report of a novel goose astrovirus outbreak in Muscovy ducklings in China

Poult Sci. 2021 Oct;100(10):101407. doi: 10.1016/j.psj.2021.101407. Epub 2021 Jul 26.

Authors

Qinxi Chen¹, Zhengli Yu¹, Xin Xu¹, Jun Ji², Lunguang Yao¹, Yunchao Kan¹, Yingzuo Bi³, Qingmei Xie³

Affiliations

¹ Henan Provincial Engineering Laboratory of Insects Bio-reactor, Henan Provincial Engineering and Technology Center of Health Products for Livestock and Poultry, Henan Provincial Engineering and Technology Center of Animal Disease Diagnosis and Integrated Control, Nanyang Normal University, Nanyang, 473061, PR China.
² Henan Provincial Engineering Laboratory of Insects Bio-reactor, Henan Provincial Engineering and Technology Center of Health Products for Livestock and Poultry, Henan Provincial Engineering and Technology Center of Animal Disease Diagnosis and Integrated Control, Nanyang Normal University, Nanyang, 473061, PR China. Electronic address: jijun020@126.com.
³ College of Animal Science, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou 510642, PR China.

Abstract

A highly acute disease characterized as visceral gout broke out in Muscovy ducklings in Henan province (China) in June 2020, with a mortality rate of up to 61%. In this study, common pathogenic agents were screened using reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction or polymerase chain reaction. The results found the novel goose astrovirus (GoAstV) to be the pathogenic agent. We isolated the GoAstV, which has been designated as HNNY0620, using the Leghorn male chicken hepatocellular carcinoma (LMH) cell line and sequenced the complete genome. The phylogenetic tree showed that the amino acid (aa) sequences of ORF1a and ORF2 and the completed nucleotide sequences of the HNNY0620 strain were clustered in the GoAstV-I clade. ORF1a aa and whole-genome sequences were genetically close to TAstV-2 and DHV-3, whereas the ORF2 aa sequences were clustered with TAstV-2 and DHV2. Both the duck-origin GoAstVs and HNNY0620 harbored some special mutations, but ORF1a in 700 (I/T), ORF1b in 288 (F/L), and ORF2 in 306 (A/T) were only found in HNNY0620. These results suggest that the host range of GoAstV is diffusing, which can potentially affect other waterfowl.

Keywords: GoAstV; Muscovy-ducklings; genomic sequence analysis; gout; mutation analysis.

MeSH terms

Animals
Astroviridae Infections* / epidemiology
Astroviridae Infections* / veterinary
Chickens
China / epidemiology
Disease Outbreaks / veterinary
Ducks
Geese
Male
Phylogeny
Poultry Diseases* / epidemiology