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. 2023 Mar 13;15(3):738.
doi: 10.3390/v15030738.

Co-Surveillance of Rotaviruses in Humans and Domestic Animals in Central Uganda Reveals Circulation of Wide Genotype Diversity in the Animals

Josephine Bwogi  1   2 , Charles Karamagi  2 , Denis Karuhize Byarugaba  3 , Phionah Tushabe  1 , Sarah Kiguli  2 , Prossy Namuwulya  1 , Samuel S Malamba  4 , Khuzwayo C Jere  5   6   7 , Ulrich Desselberger  8 , Miren Iturriza-Gomara  5
Affiliations

Co-Surveillance of Rotaviruses in Humans and Domestic Animals in Central Uganda Reveals Circulation of Wide Genotype Diversity in the Animals

Josephine Bwogi et al. Viruses. .

Abstract

Rotavirus genotypes are species specific. However, interspecies transmission is reported to result in the emergence of new genotypes. A cross-sectional study of 242 households with 281 cattle, 418 goats, 438 pigs, and 258 humans in Uganda was undertaken between 2013 and 2014. The study aimed to determine the prevalence and genotypes of rotaviruses across co-habiting host species, as well as potential cross-species transmission. Rotavirus infection in humans and animals was determined using NSP3 targeted RT-PCR and ProSpecT Rotavirus ELISA tests, respectively. Genotyping of rotavirus-positive samples was by G- and P-genotype specific primers in nested RT-PCR assays while genotyping of VP4 and VP7 proteins for the non-typeable human positive sample was done by Sanger sequencing. Mixed effect logistic regression was used to determine the factors associated with rotavirus infection in animals. The prevalence of rotavirus was 4.1% (95% CI: 3.0-5.5%) among the domestic animals and 0.8% (95% CI: 0.4-1.5%) in humans. The genotypes in human samples were G9P[8] and P[4]. In animals, six G-genotypes, G3(2.5%), G8(10%), G9(10%), G11(26.8%), G10(35%), and G12(42.5%), and nine P-genotypes, P[1](2.4%), P[4](4.9%), P[5](7.3%), P[6](14.6%), P[7](7.3%), P[8](9.8%), P[9](9.8%), P[10](12.2%), and P[11](17.1%), were identified. Animals aged 2 to 18 months were less likely to have rotavirus infection in comparison with animals below 2 months of age. No inter-host species transmission was identified.

Keywords: Uganda; co-surveillance; domestic animals; epidemiology; genotyping; inter-host species transmission; rotavirus.

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Conflict of interest statement

Miren Iturriza-Gomara and Khuzwayo C. Jere declare receipt of support for other research projects from GSK and SPMSD. The other authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
VP7. A Maximum-likelihood phylogenetic tree based on the Hasegawa–Kishono–Yano plus empirical base frequencies plus FreeRate model generated using IQ-TREE (3) and run for 1000 pseudo replicates. The tree was midpoint rooted and bootstrap values greater than 75% are shown at the nodes. The study human strain is in red.
Figure 2
Figure 2
VP4. A Maximum-likelihood phylogenetic tree based on the Hasegawa–Kishono–Yano plus empirical base frequencies plus discrete gamma model generated using IQ-TREE (3) and run for 1000 pseudo replicates. Bootstrap values greater than 75% are shown at the nodes. The study human strain is in red.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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