Influence of age and body condition on astrovirus infection of bats in Singapore: An evolutionary and epidemiological analysis

Mendenhall, Ian H.; Skiles, Maggie M.; Neves, Erica Sena; Borthwick, Sophie A.; Low, Dolyce H.W.; Liang, Benjamin; Lee, Benjamin P.Y.-H.; Su, Yvonne C.F.; Smith, Gavin J.D.

The Astroviridae, a family of single stranded, positive sense nonenveloped RNA viruses [8] , is a favorable candidate for studying evolutionary history because they infect a wide variety of species and recombine [9] [10] [11] . In addition, the phylogeny of the astrovirus RdRp segment indicates that cross-species transmission has driven the evolution of this virus family [12] . A number of these viruses have public health and economic importance [12, 13] . Transmission is fecal-oral and diarrhea is the primary clinical symptom in most hosts, but astroviruses can also cause kidney-related ailments in chickens and humans and encephalitis in humans and cows [14] [15] [16] . Astrovirus outbreaks in commercial cow, pig, mink, turkey, duck, goose, chicken, and guinea fowl production facilities cause major economic losses [17] [18] [19] [20] [21] [22] [23] . In wildlife, avastroviruses have been detected in wild ducks, wading birds, passerines, pigeons, and penguins [24] [25] [26] [27] . When infected, bats have been hypothesized notto become sick or display signs due to their unique immune response [28] .