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. 2023 Feb 24;11(3):566.
doi: 10.3390/microorganisms11030566.

Rotaviruses in Wild Ungulates from Germany, 2019-2022

Nadine Althof  1 , Eva Trojnar  1 , Reimar Johne  1
Affiliations

Rotaviruses in Wild Ungulates from Germany, 2019-2022

Nadine Althof et al. Microorganisms. .

Abstract

Rotavirus A (RVA) is an important cause of diarrhea in humans and animals. However, RVA in wild animals has only scarcely been investigated so far. Here, the presence of RVA in wild ungulates hunted between 2019 and 2022 in Brandenburg, Germany, was investigated using real-time RT-PCR and sequencing of RT-PCR products. By analyzing intestinal contents, RVA-RNA was detected in 1.0% (2/197) of wild boar (Sus scrofa), 1.3% (2/152) of roe deer (Capreolus capreolus), and 2.1% (2/95) of fallow deer (Dama dama) but not in 28 red deer (Cervus elaphus) samples. Genotyping identified G3P[13] strains in wild boar, which were closely related to previously described pig and wild boar strains. Genotype G10P[15] strains, closely related to strains from roe deer, sheep, or cattle, were found in roe deer. The strains of fallow deer represented genotype G3P[3], clustering in a group containing different strains from several hosts. The results indicated a low prevalence of RVA in wild ungulates in Germany. Associations of specific genotypes with certain ungulate species seem to exist but should be confirmed by analyses of more samples in the future.

Keywords: detection rate; fallow deer; genotyping; roe deer; rotavirus A; wild boar.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest. The funders had no role in the design of the study; in the collection, analyses, or interpretation of data; in the writing of the manuscript; or in the decision to publish the results.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Location of the sampling sites of wild ungulates within different hunting areas (A–X) in Brandenburg, Germany. RVA-RNA-positive samples are shown by colored dots, as indicated in the box. The map was generated using d-maps.com (https://d-maps.com/carte.php?num_car=17879 and https://d-maps.com/carte.php?num_car=6198&lang=en accessed on 14 December 2022).
Figure 2
Figure 2
Phylogenetic relationship of the RVA strains from wild ungulates of Germany with closely related strains and genotype reference strains based on a 307 bp fragment of the VP7-encoding genome segment. The tree was constructed by the Maximum Likelihood Method using MEGA-X. Bootstrap values >50% are indicated. Scale bars indicate nucleotide substitutions per site. The strain designations and GenBank accession numbers are indicated at the branches of the trees. Strains from this study are marked in boldface, and genotype reference strains in italics. G-types are also indicated right of the tree.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Phylogenetic relationship of the RVA strains from wild ungulates of Germany with closely related strains and genotype reference strains based on a 727 bp fragment of the VP4-encoding genome segment. The tree was constructed by the Maximum Likelihood Method using MEGA-X. Bootstrap values >50% are indicated. Scale bars indicate nucleotide substitutions per site. The strain designations and GenBank accession numbers are indicated at the branches of the trees. Strains from this study are marked in boldface, and genotype reference strains in italics. P-types are also indicated right of the tree.
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