Metatranscriptomics reveals that the death of a Mongolian wild ass was caused by in Inner Mongolia, China.

is an important pathogen that causes botulism in humans and animals worldwide. group III strains, which produce a single toxin of type C or D or a chimeric toxin of type C/D or D/C, are responsible for botulism in a wide range of animal species including cattle and birds. We used unbiased high-throughput RNA sequencing (i.e., metatranscriptomics) to identify a strain of group III from a deceased Mongolian wild ass (). The strain was closely related to some European strains. Genetic analysis of the recovered bacterial sequences showed that the strain identified might represent a type C/D strain of group III. Infection by producing the mosaic toxin of type C/D is the most likely cause of the death of the wild ass.