Abstract
Neurological diseases in cattle can be caused by several infectious agents. Astroviruses are increasingly recognized as the causative agent of encephalitis in various animals, including humans. In this study, a neuroinvasive astrovirus (BoAstV 20B05) was discovered in the brain tissues of an 81-month-old Korean native cattle with neurological symptoms. Lymphocyte infiltration and multifocal perivascular cuffing were observed in the cerebrum and brain stem, and viral antigens were also detected in the meninges. In particular, the concentration of the astroviral genome was high in the brain tissues. Korean BoAstV 20B05 was classified into the CH13/NeuroS1 clade and was closely related to the Neuro-Uy and KagoshimaSR28-462 strains. Our evolutionary analysis showed that Korean BoAstV 20B05 belongs to the sub-lineage NeuroS1 and evolved independently of BoAstV KagoshimaSR28-462. These results suggest that neuroinvasive astroviruses were first introduced in Korea. However, analysis is limited by the lack of reference astrovirus sequences reported in various countries within Asia, and further analysis should be performed using more strains. In this study, we identified a neuroinvasive astrovirus infection with neurological symptoms for the first time in South Korea and confirmed that BoAstV 20B05 may have been introduced in South Korea a long time ago.
Highlights
Astroviruses are single-stranded positive-sense RNA viruses that contain a genome of approximately 6.2–7.7 kb in length
ORF1ab is located towards the 50 end of the viral RNA, and it representatively encodes the RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRP) and a viral protease; ORF2 is located toward the 30 end of the RNA, and it encodes the viral capsid [2]
The astrovirus RNA-dependent RNA polymerase gene (RdRp) gene was detected in all samples
Summary
Astroviruses are single-stranded positive-sense RNA viruses that contain a genome of approximately 6.2–7.7 kb in length. Their genome consists of three open reading frames (ORFs) designated as ORF1a, ORF1b, and ORF2 [1]. Subsequently; neuro-astrovirus was identified in cattle with neurologic disease [9]; domestic sheep with encephalitis and ganglionitis [10]; and weaned pigs with encephalomyelitis, weakness, and paralysis [11]. New cases of bovine astrovirus infection with nonsuppurative encephalitis have been reported in Canada [17,18]. This study is the first to identify an astrovirus infection in cattle with neurological symptoms in
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