Detection of a novel astrovirus in brain tissue of mink suffering from shaking mink syndrome by use of viral metagenomics.

ABSTRACT: In 2000, farmed mink kits in Denmark were affected by a neurological disorder. The characteristic clinical signs included shaking, staggering gait, and ataxia. The disease, given the name shaking mink syndrome, was reproduced by the inoculation of brain homogenate from affected mink kits into healthy ones. However, the etiology remained unknown despite intensive efforts. In this study, random amplification and large-scale sequencing were used, and an astrovirus was detected in the brain tissue of three experimentally infected mink kits. This virus also was found in the brain of three mink kits naturally displaying the disease but not in the six healthy animals investigated. The complete coding region of the detected astrovirus was sequenced and compared to those of both a mink astrovirus a

SUBMITTER: Blomstrom AL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3008476 | biostudies-literature | 2010 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature