Simian genogroup I picobirnaviruses: prevalence, genetic diversity, and zoonotic potential

We previously reported the first detection of simian picobirnaviruses (PBVs) by polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis in fecal specimens of two monkeys with diarrhea in China. We now report the detection of genogroup I PBVs in 48% (44/92) of the fecal specimens by reverse transcriptase PCR (RT-PCR) and amplicon sequencing using primers specific for the RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RDRP) gene. Molecular characterization of these 44 strains demonstrated both sequence conservation and diversity among simian PBVs and among simian, porcine, and human PBVs. We further determined full-length sequences of segment 2 of the two simian PBV strains, monkey/CHN-14/2002 and monkey/CHN-49/2002, and demonstrated 52.5% to 54.2% nucleotide sequence similarity to the corresponding gene of the bovine strain RUBV and the prototype human strain 1-CHN-97 of genogroup I PBVs and an even lower similarity (38.4%) to segment 2 of the prototype human genogroup II strain 4-GA-91. Further studies are needed to investigate the epidemiology and pathogenesis of PBVs in animals and humans.