Purification and characterization of ovine astrovirus

Astrovirus, purified in aggregated form from epithelial cells of the small intestinal villi of infected gnotobiotic lambs, was shown to have a single-stranded RNA genome with an S value of 34 and poly(A) tract. Only two major capsid polypeptides were detected with similar mol. wt. of approx. 3.3 x 10(4).