Genogroup I picobirnavirus in diarrhoeic foals: Can the horse serve as a natural reservoir for human infection?

• Published in: Veterinary research (Paris) Vol. 42; no. 1; p. 52
• Main Authors: Ganesh, Balasubramanian, Banyai, Krisztian, Masachessi, Gisela, Mladenova, Zornitsa, Nagashima, Shigeo, Ghosh, Souvik, Mariyappa Nataraju, Seegekote, Pativada, Madhusudhan, Kumar, Rahul, Kobayashi, Nobumichi
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Springer-Verlag 17.03.2011; BioMed Central Ltd; BioMed Central; BMC
• Subjects: Amino Acid Sequence; Amino acids; Animals; diarrhea; Diarrhea - veterinary; Diarrhea - virology; Disease Reservoirs - virology; DNA-directed RNA polymerase; double-stranded RNA; Electrophoresis, Polyacrylamide Gel - veterinary; feces; Feces - virology; Female; foals; genes; genetic relationships; Health aspects; Horse Diseases - virology; Horses; human diseases; Humans; India; Infection; Molecular Sequence Data; Phylogeny; Physiological aspects; Picobirnavirus - genetics; Picobirnavirus - isolation & purification; Picobirnavirus - metabolism; Polymerase chain reaction; Polymerase Chain Reaction - veterinary; RNA Replicase - chemistry; RNA Replicase - genetics; RNA Replicase - metabolism; RNA Virus Infections - complications; RNA Virus Infections - veterinary; RNA Virus Infections - virology; RNA viruses; sequence analysis; Short Report; Viral Proteins - chemistry; Viral Proteins - genetics; Viral Proteins - metabolism; viruses; India; Hungary; Argentina
• ISSN: 1297-9716; 0928-4249; 1297-9716
• DOI: 10.1186/1297-9716-42-52

Picobirnaviruses (PBV) are small, non-enveloped viruses with a bisegmented double-stranded RNA genome. In this study a PBV strain, PBV/Horse/India/BG-Eq-3/2010, was identified in the faeces of a 10 month old weaned female foal with diarrhoea in January 2010 from Kolkata, India. Surprisingly, sequence comparison and phylogenetic analysis of a short stretch of the RNA dependent RNA polymerase gene revealed close genetic relatedness (> 98% nucleotide identity) to a human genogroup I PBV strain (Hu/GPBV1) detected earlier from the same part of India. Our observations together with earlier findings on genetic relatedness between human and animal PBV warrant further studies on zoonotic potential.