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

Infected goslings exhibited signs of depression from 3 dpi and this symptom persisted for 3-4 days. One bird died at 5 dpi and severe urate deposition, similar to that seen in the field cases, was evident on the surface of the heart, liver, and kidney (Fig. 5b) . For the three infected goslings killed at 5 dpi, no evident gross lesion was noted in the visceral organs at postmortem. However, histologic examination revealed the presence of an eosinophilic proteinaceous substance in the renal tubules, and mild interstitial lymphocyte infiltration was noted in sample of two goslings (2/3) (Fig. S1 ). AstV RNA were detected in the collected tissues of three goslings (Fig. S2) , indicating that the isolate has a wide tissue tropism after infection. All tissues from the uninfected birds were normal.