Avian-to-mammal transmission of an avian rotavirus: analysis of its pathogenicity in a heterologous mouse model

Abstract

It has been suggested that group A avian rotaviruses can be transmitted to mammals, but there is no direct evidence that such viruses induce disease in mammals. Suckling mice were orally inoculated with two avian rotaviruses. A pigeon rotavirus, PO-13, was found to induce diarrhea, but a turkey rotavirus, Ty-3, did not. The diarrhea induced by PO-13 was dependent on the age of the mouse. In histopathological examinations, antigens of PO-13 were sporadically detected in absorptive cells in the ileum, and lesions were observed as ballooning degenerations of absorptive cells in a region from the duodenum to the ileum. However, the rotavirus antigen was not detected in the majority of these degenerative cells. These results indicated that PO-13 could infect and induce diarrhea in suckling mice. This is the first evidence of an avian rotavirus being experimentally transmissible to a mammal.