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*This article has been accepted for publication and undergone full peer review but has not been through the copyediting, typesetting, pagination and proofreading process, which may lead to differences between this version and the Version of Record.
First published: 04 September 2022
Rong-Guang Lu, Shuang-Shuang Li, Bo Hu, Hong-Ye Li, Hong Tian, Wei-Quan Liu, Xi-Jun Yan, Hao Liu, Xue Bai
Abstract
A novel neurological disorder, shaking mink syndrome (SMS), emerged in Denmark and Sweden since 2000. SMS has seldom been reported in China, but the causative agent has not been detected in the country. SMS outbreaks occurred in multiple provinces in 2020. A total of 44 brain samples from minks associated with SMS were collected from Heilongjiang, Liaoning, and Shandong provinces, of which 28 samples (63.3%) were SMS-Astrovirus (SMS-AstV) positive by reverse transcription PCR. Histopathological examination revealed non-suppurative encephalitis in 3 minks. Moreover, the complete coding region sequences (CDS, 6559 bp) of a sample collected from a two-month-old mink (termed SMS-AstV-H1, GSA accession No. SAMC816786) were amplified by PCR and Sanger sequenced. The complete CDS and ORF2 sequences of SMS-AstV-H1 were 94.3% and 96.4% identical to a SMS-AstV strain (GenBank accession number: GU985458). Phylogenetically, SMS-AstV-H1 was closely related to an SMS-AstV strain (GU985458). Based on the above results, we describe SMS-AstV-associated encephalitis in farmed minks in China. Future studies need to focus on epidemiology, virus isolation, and potential interspecies transmission of SMS-AstV.
First published: 04 September 2022
Rong-Guang Lu, Shuang-Shuang Li, Bo Hu, Hong-Ye Li, Hong Tian, Wei-Quan Liu, Xi-Jun Yan, Hao Liu, Xue Bai
Abstract
A novel neurological disorder, shaking mink syndrome (SMS), emerged in Denmark and Sweden since 2000. SMS has seldom been reported in China, but the causative agent has not been detected in the country. SMS outbreaks occurred in multiple provinces in 2020. A total of 44 brain samples from minks associated with SMS were collected from Heilongjiang, Liaoning, and Shandong provinces, of which 28 samples (63.3%) were SMS-Astrovirus (SMS-AstV) positive by reverse transcription PCR. Histopathological examination revealed non-suppurative encephalitis in 3 minks. Moreover, the complete coding region sequences (CDS, 6559 bp) of a sample collected from a two-month-old mink (termed SMS-AstV-H1, GSA accession No. SAMC816786) were amplified by PCR and Sanger sequenced. The complete CDS and ORF2 sequences of SMS-AstV-H1 were 94.3% and 96.4% identical to a SMS-AstV strain (GenBank accession number: GU985458). Phylogenetically, SMS-AstV-H1 was closely related to an SMS-AstV strain (GU985458). Based on the above results, we describe SMS-AstV-associated encephalitis in farmed minks in China. Future studies need to focus on epidemiology, virus isolation, and potential interspecies transmission of SMS-AstV.