Identification and genetic characterization of a novel duck astrovirus
causing gout disease in ducklings
Abstract
Four divergent groups of duck astroviruses (DAstVs) have been identified
that infect domestic ducks. In March 2021, a fatal disease characterized
by visceral urate deposition broke out in 5-day-old Beijing ducks on a
commercial farm in Guangdong province, China. The pathogen was confirmed
to be a duck astrovirus. The complete genome sequence of this DAstV was
obtained by virome sequencing and amplification. Phylogenetic analyses
and pairwise comparisons demonstrated that this DAstV represented a
novel group of avastrovirus. Thus, we designated this duck astrovirus as
DAstV-5 JM strain. DAstV-5 JM shared genome sequence identities of
15–45% with other avastroviruses. Amino acid identities with proteins
from other avastroviruses did not exceed 59% for ORF1a, 79% for ORF1b,
and 60% for ORF2. The capsid region of JM shared genetic distances of
0.596 to 0.695 with the three official avastrovirus species. In summary,
we determined that the DAstV-5 JM strain, causing gout in ducklings, is
a novel species of avastrovirus.