Isolation and characterization of an astrovirus causing fatal visceral gout in domestic goslings

Zhang, Qingshui; Cao, Yanxin; Wang, Jun; Fu, Guanghua; Sun, Mengxu; Zhang, Lijiao; Meng, Li; Cui, Guolin; Huang, Yu; Hu, Xueying; Su, Jingliang

This experiment was designed to investigate the in vivo replication of the virus and its impact on the growth of infected birds. Fourteen 5-day-old goslings were infected as in experiment 1. Birds inoculated with sterile PBS were used as the uninfected control. The tissue distribution of the virus was analyzed in three infected goslings 5 dpi. Representative tissues samples were collected and subjected to histopathological examination and virus RNA detection. For virus shedding detection, cloacal swabs were collected from both infected and control birds on 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, and 14 dpi. Swabs were immersed in 1 ml of 1 × Dulbecco's modified Eagle's medium (Gibco, NY, USA) and frozen at −75°C. Simultaneously, individual birds were weighed. The difference between the mean body weights of infected and uninfected control birds was tested by Student's t-test. Significant differences were defined by P-values <0.05 (*), <0.01 (**).