Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2021 Mar 16;10(3):350.
doi: 10.3390/pathogens10030350.

Characterisation of a G2P[4] Rotavirus Outbreak in Western Australia, Predominantly Impacting Aboriginal Children

Celeste M Donato  1   2   3 , Nevada Pingault  4 , Elena Demosthenous  1   3 , Susie Roczo-Farkas  1 , Julie E Bines  1   2   5
Affiliations

Characterisation of a G2P[4] Rotavirus Outbreak in Western Australia, Predominantly Impacting Aboriginal Children

Celeste M Donato et al. Pathogens. .

Abstract

In May, 2017, an outbreak of rotavirus gastroenteritis was reported that predominantly impacted Aboriginal children ≤4 years of age in the Kimberley region of Western Australia. G2P[4] was identified as the dominant genotype circulating during this period and polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis revealed the majority of samples exhibited a conserved electropherotype. Full genome sequencing was performed on representative samples that exhibited the archetypal DS-1-like genome constellation: G2-P[4]-I2-R2-C2-M2-A2-N2-T2-E2-H2 and phylogenetic analysis revealed all genes of the outbreak samples were closely related to contemporary Japanese G2P[4] samples. The outbreak samples consistently fell within conserved sub-clades comprised of Hungarian and Australian G2P[4] samples from 2010. The 2017 outbreak variant was not closely related to G2P[4] variants associated with prior outbreaks in Aboriginal communities in the Northern Territory. When compared to the G2 component of the RotaTeq vaccine, the outbreak variant exhibited mutations in known antigenic regions; however, these mutations are frequently observed in contemporary G2P[4] strains. Despite the level of vaccine coverage achieved in Australia, outbreaks continue to occur in vaccinated populations, which pose challenges to regional areas and remote communities. Continued surveillance and characterisation of emerging variants are imperative to ensure the ongoing success of the rotavirus vaccination program in Australia.

Keywords: Aboriginal; G2P[4]; Indigenous; Western Australia; gastroenteritis; outbreak; rotavirus; vaccine; whole genome sequencing.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The Australian Rotavirus Surveillance Program is supported by research grants from the vaccine companies Commonwealth Serum Laboratories (bioCSL)/Sequis (2010–2018) and GlaxoSmithKline (2010–2016, study ID116120 2017–2018). C.M.D. has served on an advisory board for GSK (2019), all payments were paid directly to an administrative fund held by Murdoch Children’s Research Institute. All other authors declare no competing interests.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Monthly rotavirus notification rates between January 2012 and November 2017.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Distribution of the number of rotavirus cases in Western Australia in May, 2017 by age (years) and Indigenous status.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Distribution of the number of rotavirus cases from May, 2017, all ages, by Indigenous status and Public Health Unit (PHU) boundaries, reflecting WA Health administrative regions: Central/Wheatbelt (CENT), Goldfields (GOLD), Great Southern (GSTH), Kimberley (KIMB), Metropolitan Perth (METRO), Midwest (MIDW), Pilbara (PILB), and South West (STHW).
Figure 4
Figure 4
Distribution of rotavirus cases in May, 2017, aged ≤4 years, by Aboriginal status and Public Health Unit (PHU) boundaries, reflecting WA Health administrative regions: Central/Wheatbelt (CENT), Goldfields (GOLD), Great Southern (GSTH), Kimberley (KIMB), Metropolitan Perth (METRO), Midwest (MIDW), Pilbara (PILB), and South West (STHW).
Figure 5
Figure 5
Maximum likelihood phylogenetic trees of (a) VP7, (b) VP4, (c) VP1, (d) VP2, (e) VP3, (f) VP6, (g) NSP1, (h) NSP2, (i) NSP3, (j) NSP4, and (k) NSP5/6 2017 Western Australia outbreak G2P[4] samples. The position of strains sequenced in this study are highlighted in red and with square symbols, previously characterised G2P[4] outbreak samples from the Northern Territory detected in 1999, 2004, and 2010 are denoted with triangle symbols. All Australian samples are in bold. Ultrafast bootstrap values ≥95% are shown.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Maximum likelihood phylogenetic trees of (a) VP7, (b) VP4, (c) VP1, (d) VP2, (e) VP3, (f) VP6, (g) NSP1, (h) NSP2, (i) NSP3, (j) NSP4, and (k) NSP5/6 2017 Western Australia outbreak G2P[4] samples. The position of strains sequenced in this study are highlighted in red and with square symbols, previously characterised G2P[4] outbreak samples from the Northern Territory detected in 1999, 2004, and 2010 are denoted with triangle symbols. All Australian samples are in bold. Ultrafast bootstrap values ≥95% are shown.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Maximum likelihood phylogenetic trees of (a) VP7, (b) VP4, (c) VP1, (d) VP2, (e) VP3, (f) VP6, (g) NSP1, (h) NSP2, (i) NSP3, (j) NSP4, and (k) NSP5/6 2017 Western Australia outbreak G2P[4] samples. The position of strains sequenced in this study are highlighted in red and with square symbols, previously characterised G2P[4] outbreak samples from the Northern Territory detected in 1999, 2004, and 2010 are denoted with triangle symbols. All Australian samples are in bold. Ultrafast bootstrap values ≥95% are shown.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Maximum likelihood phylogenetic trees of (a) VP7, (b) VP4, (c) VP1, (d) VP2, (e) VP3, (f) VP6, (g) NSP1, (h) NSP2, (i) NSP3, (j) NSP4, and (k) NSP5/6 2017 Western Australia outbreak G2P[4] samples. The position of strains sequenced in this study are highlighted in red and with square symbols, previously characterised G2P[4] outbreak samples from the Northern Territory detected in 1999, 2004, and 2010 are denoted with triangle symbols. All Australian samples are in bold. Ultrafast bootstrap values ≥95% are shown.
Figure 6
Figure 6
A surface representation of the VP7 monomer depicting the amino acid residues that differ between the 2017 G2P[4] WA outbreak samples and the G2 component of the RotaTeq vaccine strain (PDB ID: 3FMG). The antigenic epitopes are coloured as 7-1a in cyan, 7-1b in mid blue, and 7-2 in dark blue. The conserved residues that differ between the 2017 samples and the G2 component of the RotaTeq vaccine strain are shown in red and the residue that differed only in RVA/Human-wt/AUS/WAPC2784/2017/G2P[4] is shown in salmon.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Troeger C., Khalil I.A., Rao P.C., Cao S., Blacker B.F., Ahmed T., Armah G., Bines J.E., Brewer T.G., Colombara D.V., et al. Rotavirus Vaccination and the Global Burden of Rotavirus Diarrhea Among Children Younger Than 5 Years. JAMA Pediatr. 2018;172:958–965. doi: 10.1001/jamapediatrics.2018.1960. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. World Health Organization Vaccine in National Immunization Programme Update. [(accessed on 5 May 2020)]; Available online: www.who.int/immunization/monitoring_surveillance/VaccineIntroStatus.pptx....
    1. Roczo-Farkas S., Cowley D., Bines J.E. Australian Rotavirus Surveillance Program: Annual Report, 2017. Commun. Dis. Intell. 2019;43 doi: 10.33321/cdi.2019.43.28. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Roczo-Farkas S., Kirkwood C.D., Cowley D., Barnes G.L., Bishop R.F., Bogdanovic-Sakran N., Boniface K., Donato C.M., Bines J.E. The Impact of Rotavirus Vaccines on Genotype Diversity: A Comprehensive Analysis of 2 Decades of Australian Surveillance Data. J. Infect. Dis. 2018;218:546–554. doi: 10.1093/infdis/jiy197. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Rotavirus Classification Working Group List of Accepted Genotypes. [(accessed on 18 January 2021)]; Available online: https://rega.kuleuven.be/cev/viralmetagenomics/virus-classification/rcwg.

LinkOut - more resources