Viruses, Vol. 15, Pages 1965: Detection of Alpha- and Betacoronaviruses in Small Mammals in Western Yunnan Province, China

Viruses, Vol. 15, Pages 1965: Detection of Alpha- and Betacoronaviruses in Small Mammals in Western Yunnan Province, China Viruses doi: 10.3390/v15091965 Authors: Fen-Hui Xu Pei-Yu Han Jia-Wei Tian Li-Dong Zong Hong-Min Yin Jun-Ying Zhao Ze Yang Wei Kong Xing-Yi Ge Yun-Zhi Zhang The genetic diversity of coronaviruses (CoVs) is high, and their infection in animals has not yet been fully revealed. By RT-PCR detection of the partial RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp) gene of CoVs, we screened a total of 502 small mammals in the Dali and Nujiang prefectures of Western Yunnan Province, China. The number of overall CoV positives was 20, including β-CoV (n = 13) and α-CoV (n = 7), with a 3.98% prevalence in rectal tissue samples. The identity of the partial RdRp genes obtained for 13 strains of β-CoV was 83.42–99.23% at the nucleotide level, and it is worth noting that the two strains from Kachin red-backed voles showed high identity to BOV-36/IND/2015 from Indian bovines and DcCoV-HKU23 from dromedary camels (Camelus dromedarius) in Morocco; the nucleotide identity was between 97.86 and 98.33%. Similarly, the identity of the seven strains of α-CoV among the partial RdRp sequences was 94.00–99.18% at nucleotide levels. The viral load in different tissues was measured by quantitative RT-PCR (qRT-PCR). The average CoV viral load in small mammalian rectal tissue was 1.35 &am...
Source: Viruses - Category: Virology Authors: Tags: Article Source Type: research