Three Novel Avastroviruses Identified in Dead Wild Crows

摘要

Dear Editor,Astroviruses(AstVs)are non-enveloped,single-stranded RNA viruses with a diameter of approximately 35 nm(Madeley and Cosgrove 1975).The genomes of AstVs range in size from 6.8 to 7.9 kb(De Benedictis et al.2011),consisting of a 5'-untranslated region(UTR),three open reading frames(ORFs),a 3'-UTR,and a poly-adenylated(polyA)tail(Pantin-Jackwood et al.2006).In 1975,AstVs were first discovered in faeces of infants(Madeley and Cosgrove 1975).Until now,a variety of animal species,including cows,sheep,pigs,dogs,deer,rats,bats,chickens,ducks,turkeys,sea lions and seals have been reported to be infected with AstVs(Tzipori et al.1981;Cattoli et al.2007;Chu et al.2008,2010;Atkins et al.2009;Toffan et al.2009;Rivera et al.2010;Guix et al.2013;Kang et al.2012;Reuter et al.2012a,2012b;Li et al.2021).Currently,AstVs comprise two genera,Mamastrovirus(MAstV)and Avastrovirus(AAstV).Herein,we describe three novel AAstVs identified from dead crow tissues.To our knowledge,this is the first report for identification of AstVs in crows.