Detection and molecular phylogenetic analysis of chicken astrovirus in Saga prefecture, Japan

Abstract

We detected three chicken astrovirus strains from 4-day-old broiler chickens with a high mortality rate and visceral gout, and one strain from 150-day-old hens without clinical symptoms in Saga prefecture, Japan. Phylogenetic analysis based on the ORF1 amino acid sequence revealed that the strains from the visceral gout case were classified into subgroup Bi, and the strain from chickens without clinical symptoms was classified into subgroup Aiii. Our data indicate that diseases caused by chicken astrovirus can occur in Japan, and that chicken astrovirus infection should be included in the differential diagnosis of chickens with visceral gout.