In recent years, goose gout, a severe infectious disease, has affected the development of the goose industry in China. Two different genotypes of goose astrovirus (GAstV), named as GAstV-1 and GAstV-2, were identified. GAstV-2 viruses are known to be the causative agent of goose gout; however, GAstV-1 has not been isolated, and the relationship between GAstV-1 and goose gout is unknown. One full genome sequence, designated as GAstV/CHN/TZ03/2019 (TZ03), was determined from the clinical tissue samples of a diseased gosling using next-generation sequencing. The complete genome of TZ03 was 7,262 nucleotides in length with typical genomic characteristics of avastroviruses. The TZ03 strain shares the highest identity (96.6%) with the GAstV-1 strain FLX, but only 51.5 to 61.3% identity with other astroviruses in Avastrovirus. Phylogenetic analysis revealed that the TZ03 strain clustered together with the GAstV-1 strains FLX and AHDY and was highly divergent from GAstV-2 viruses. The TZ03 strain was successfully isolated from goose embryos and caused 100% mortality of goose embryos after 5 passages. Electron microscopy showed that the virus particles were spherical with a diameter of ∼22 nm. The clinical symptoms were reproduced by experimental infection of healthy goslings, which were similar to those caused by GAstV-2 strains. Our data show that GAstV-1 is one of the causative agents of the ongoing goose gout disease in China. These findings enrich our understanding of the evolution of GAstVs that cause gout and provide potential options for developing biological products to treat goose gout.

Duck Tembusu Virus (DTMUV) is a pathogen of the Flaviviridae family that causes infections in poultry, leading to significant economic losses in the duck farming industry in recent years. Ducks infected with this virus exhibit clinical symptoms such as decreased egg production and neurological disorders, along with serious consequences such as ovarian hemorrhage, organ enlargement, and necrosis. Variations in morbidity and mortality rates exist across different age groups of ducks. It is worth noting that DTMUV is not limited to ducks alone; it can also spread to other poultry such as chickens and geese, and antibodies related to DTMUV have even been found in duck farm workers, suggesting a potential risk of zoonotic transmission. This article provides a detailed overview of DTMUV research, delving into its genomic characteristics, vaccines, and the interplay with host immune responses. These in-depth research findings contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of the virus’s transmission mechanism and pathogenic process, offering crucial scientific support for epidemic prevention and control.

China has the largest pig herd in the world which accounts for more than 50% of the global pig population. Over the past three decades, the porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (PRRSV) has caused significant economic loss to the Chinese swine industry. Currently, the prevalent PRRSV strains in the field are extremely complicated, and the NADC30-like strains, NADC34-like strains, and novel recombinant viruses have become a great concern to PRRS control in China. In this study, a novel NADC30-like PRRSV, named GS2022, was isolated from the lung of a dead pig collected from a farm that experienced a PRRS outbreak. The complete genome of GS2022 shares the highest identity with the NADC30 strain and contains a discontinuous deletion of 131 aa in nsp2. Novel deletion and insertion have been identified in ORF7 and 3’UTR. Recombination analysis revealed that the GS2022 is a potential recombinant of NADC30-like and JXA1-like strains. Both inter-lineage and intra-lineage recombination events were predicted to be involved in the generation of the GS2022. An infectious cDNA clone of GS2022 was assembled to generate the isogenic GS2022 (rGS2022). The growth kinetics of rGS2022 were almost identical to those of GS2022. The pathogenicity of the GS2022 and rGS2022 was evaluated using a nursery piglet model. In the infection groups, the piglets exhibited mild clinical symptoms, including short periods of fever and respiratory diseases. Both gross lesions and histopathological lesions were observed in the lungs and lymph nodes of the infected piglets. Therefore, we reported a novel recombinant NADC30-like PRRSV strain with moderate pathogenicity in piglets. These results provide new information on the genomic characteristics and pathogenicity of the NADC30-like PRRSV in China.

The avian adeno-associated virus (AAAV) has been proved to be an efficient gene transfer vector for human gene therapy and vaccine research. In this