Identification of a novel astrovirus (astrovirus VA1) associated with an outbreak of acute gastroenteritis

The etiology of a large proportion of gastrointestinal illness is unknown. In this study, random Sanger sequencing and pyrosequencing approaches were used to analyze fecal specimens from a gastroenteritis outbreak of unknown etiology in a child care center. Multiple sequences with limited identity to known astroviruses were identified. Assembly of the sequences and subsequent reverse transcription-PCR (RT-PCR) and rapid amplification of cDNA ends generated a complete genome of 6,586 nucleotides. Phylogenetic analysis demonstrated that this virus, named astrovirus VA1 (AstV-VA1), is highly divergent from all previously described astroviruses. Based on RT-PCR, specimens from multiple patients in this outbreak were unequivocally positive for Ast-VA1.