Acta Agriculturae Zhejiangensis ›› 2025, Vol. 37 ›› Issue (12): 2458-2467.DOI: 10.3969/j.issn.1004-1524.20241082

• Animal Science • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Isolation, identification and pathogenicity of two novel goose astrovirus strains

DING Yingying1,2(), YANG Linping1, YANG Qing1, ZHANG Zichen1, CAI Linying1, YANG Kang1, LI Chen1, LIU Huiwen1, BAO Guangbin1, WANG Qing1, WANG Guijun1,2,*()   

  1. 1. College of Animal Science and Technology, Anhui Agricultural University, Hefei 230036, China
    2. Anhui Provincial Key Laboratory of Veterinary Pathobiology and Disease Control, Hefei 230036, China
  • Received:2024-12-12 Online:2025-12-25 Published:2026-01-09

Abstract:

To determine the etiology of disease outbreaks in goose flocks at two farms in Anhui Province of China, viruses were isolated from two suspected cases of novel goose astrovirus (GAstV) infection collected between June and July 2023 (one case involving 70-day-old growing geese), followed by whole-genome sequencing and animal regression assays. The results demonstrated the successful isolation and identification of two novel GAstV strains, which were designated as HR2306/1 and MG-23. Genomic sequence analysis revealed that both strains had a complete genome length of 7 175 nucleotides (nt). Their ORF2 sequences exhibited nucleotide and amino acid sequence homologies exceeding 97% compared with strains isolated from 2016 to 2023. The alignment of ORF2 encoding amino acid sequences indicated shared variation sites between these two strains and the strain HR2110/1 (a GAstV strain isolated by the authors’ team in 2021), suggesting that HR2306/1 and MG-23 might be evolved from HR2110/1. Animal regression assays confirmed the high pathogenicity of both strains in goslings, with clinical manifestations consistent with natural infections. Characteristic urate deposits were observed on kidney surfaces, while histopathological sections and immunohistochemical analysis revealed significant pathological changes and astrovirus antigens, identifying the kidney as a target organ of GAstV. These findings indicated that GAstV could infect 70-day-old growing geese and retain strong pathogenicity in young goslings.

Key words: novel goose astrovirus, growing goose, isolation and identification, pathogenicity

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