Studying Rotavirus zoonosis/interspecies transmission by whole genome sequencing of viral strains

Global Veterinary Microbiology and Veterinary Medicine Summit

October 17-18, 2016 Chicago, USA

Souvik Ghosh and Nobumichi Kobayashi

Ross University School of Veterinary Medicine, West Indies
Sapporo Medical University, Japan

Posters & Accepted Abstracts: J Veterinar Sci Techno

Abstract :

Rotavirus-A (RVAs) are a major cause of severe viral diarrhea in the young of humans and animals. RVAs are zoonotic pathogens. Since all 11 segments of the RVA genome are susceptible to reassortment events, analyses of the antigenically significant RVA outer capsid protein VP7 and VP4 encoding genes may not be sufficient to obtain conclusive data on RVA zoonosis/interspecies transmission and reassortment events, necessitating whole genomic analysis of RVAs. During the last eight years, we have performed whole genome sequencing on several RVA strains detected in a wide variety of host species (humans, pigs, cattle, goats, horses and monkeys) from different countries, including developing countries (Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Thailand, Venezuela and West Indies). Whole genomic analyses of these RVAs yielded a plethora of conclusive, crucial and/or first-time data on zoonosis/interspecies transmission and reassortment events of RVAs, such as first conclusive evidence for simian-to-human and porcine-to-simian interspecies transmission of RVAs, interspecies transmission of RVAs from cattle and pigs to humans, detection of human RVAs possessing caprine RVA-like gene segments on a human RVA genetic backbone, common evolutionary pathways of typical human RVA strains with bovine and porcine RVAs, interspecies transmission of RVAs from pigs and cattle to horses, complex animal-human and animal-animal RVA reassortment events, and identification of novel RVA genotypes. Taken together, our findings provided vital insights into Rotavirus zoonosis/interspecies transmission and animal-human reassortment events, especially in developing countries where humans live in close proximity to animals with implications on public health.

Biography :

Email: SGhosh@RossU.edu