Avian circoviruses and hepadnaviruses identified in tissue samples of various waterfowl

Diego A Olivo; Simona Kraberger; Elliott S Chiu; Joy M Custer; Danny Jackson; Melanie Regney; Michael C Lund; Rohan A Bandoo; Victor Aguiar de Souza Penha; Dean Drake; Kevin J McGraw; Arvind Varsani

doi:10.1016/j.virol.2024.110381

Avian circoviruses and hepadnaviruses identified in tissue samples of various waterfowl

Virology. 2024 Dec 26:603:110381. doi: 10.1016/j.virol.2024.110381. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ School of Life Sciences, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, 85287, USA; The Biodesign Center for Fundamental and Applied Microbiomics, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, 85287, USA.
² The Biodesign Center for Fundamental and Applied Microbiomics, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, 85287, USA. Electronic address: [email protected].
³ Veterinary Clinical Sciences, City University of Hong Kong, Kowloon, Hong Kong.
⁴ The Biodesign Center for Fundamental and Applied Microbiomics, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, 85287, USA.
⁵ School of Life Sciences, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, 85287, USA; Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, 85721, USA.
⁶ School of Life Sciences, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, 85287, USA; Department of Integrative Biology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, 48824, USA.
⁷ School of Life Sciences, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, 85287, USA.
⁸ School of Life Sciences, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, 85287, USA; The Biodesign Center for Fundamental and Applied Microbiomics, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, 85287, USA; Center for Evolution and Medicine, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, 85287, USA; Structural Biology Research Unit, Department of Integrative, Biomedical Sciences, University of Cape Town, Observatory, Cape Town, 7925, South Africa. Electronic address: [email protected].

PMID: 39742557
DOI: 10.1016/j.virol.2024.110381

Abstract

North America is home to over 40 species of migratory waterfowl. Utilizing tissue and cloacal-swab sampling from hunter-harvested carcasses in 2021-2023, we identified circular DNA viruses associated with 116 waterfowl samples from nine species (American wigeons, Mexican ducks, northern shovelers, northern pintails, canvasbacks, mallards, American black ducks, gadwalls, and green-winged teals). We determined the genome sequences of viruses in the families Circoviridae (n = 18) and Hepadnaviridae (n = 2) from the 13 virus-infected birds. The 18 circoviruses can be classified into four circovirus lineages: duck circovirus, wigfec circovirus 1, and two new lineages, marcaroli circovirus and spata circovirus. The new circovirus lineages identified are most closely related to waterfowl circoviruses based on the pairwise identities and phylogenetic analyses of full genomes, replication-associated protein, and capsid protein sequences. The two identified hepadnavirus genomes are part of the duck hepatitis B virus lineage sharing >89% identity with known ones.

Keywords: Circoviridae; Hepadnaviridae; Waterfowl.