Abstract
BackgroundMore knowledge about viral populations in wild animals is needed in order to better understand and assess the risk of zoonotic diseases. In this study we performed viral metagenomic analysis of fecal samples from three healthy carnivores: a badger (Meles meles), a mongoose (Herpestes ichneumon) and an otter (Lutra lutra) from Portugal.ResultsWe detected the presence of novel highly divergent viruses in the fecal material of the carnivores analyzed, such as five gemycircularviruses. Four of these gemycircularviruses were found in the mongoose and one in the badger. In addition we also identified an RNA-dependent RNA polymerase gene from a putative novel member of the Nodaviridae family in the fecal material of the otter.ConclusionsTogether these results underline that many novel viruses are yet to be discovered and that fecal associated viruses are not always related to disease. Our study expands the knowledge of viral species present in the gut, although the interpretation of the true host species of such novel viruses needs to be reviewed with great caution.
Highlights
More knowledge about viral populations in wild animals is needed in order to better understand and assess the risk of zoonotic diseases
Identification of five novel gemycircularviruses in the fecal samples from the badger and mongoose In recent years, ssDNA viruses have been frequently found in fecal samples of a variety of animal species, such as badgers [13], bats [14], cows [15], turkey [16], rodents [17, 18], chimpanzees [19], pigs [20,21,22], New Zealand fur seal [20] foxes [23] and recently in ancient caribou feces [24]. ssDNA viruses are small viruses (1.4-8.5 kb) and can encode as little as two proteins: a capsid and a replication associated protein
The viruses identified in this study showed to be distantly related to the currently known gemycircularviruses
Summary
More knowledge about viral populations in wild animals is needed in order to better understand and assess the risk of zoonotic diseases. Results: We detected the presence of novel highly divergent viruses in the fecal material of the carnivores analyzed, such as five gemycircularviruses Four of these gemycircularviruses were found in the mongoose and one in the badger. With the advent of generation sequencing techniques, samples from a wide range of animal species have been screened to identify novel viruses and this approach has become the most important tool for early detection and characterization of possible emerging zoonotic agents [1,2,3]. Stone marten, badger, common genet and, more recently, the Egyptian mongoose, are known to have a generalized distribution throughout the country [10] From these animals we sampled two species, a badger (Meles meles) and an Egyptian mongoose
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