Sydney Institute for Infectious Diseases, School of Life and Environmental Sciences and Sydney Medical School, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia.
Department of Zoology, University of Otago, 340 Great King St., Dunedin 9016, New Zealand.
Viruses. 2022 Jun 23;14(7):1364. doi: 10.3390/v14071364.
New Zealand/Aotearoa has many endemic passerine birds vulnerable to emerging infectious diseases. Yet little is known about viruses in passerines, and in some countries, including New Zealand, the virome of wild passerines has been only scarcely researched. Using metatranscriptomic sequencing we characterised the virome of New Zealand endemic and introduced species of passerine. Accordingly, we identified 34 possible avian viruses from cloacal swabs of 12 endemic and introduced bird species not showing signs of disease. These included a novel siadenovirus, iltovirus, and avastrovirus in the Eurasian blackbird ( an introduced species), song thrush ( introduced) and silvereye/tauhou (, introduced), respectively. This is the first time novel viruses from these genera have been identified in New Zealand, likely reflecting prior undersampling. It also represents the first identification of an iltovirus and siadenovirus in blackbirds and thrushes globally. These three viruses were only found in introduced species and may pose a risk to endemic species if they were to jump species boundaries, particularly the iltoviruses and siadenoviruses that have a prior history of disease associations. Further virus study and surveillance are needed in New Zealand avifauna, particularly in populations and endemic species.
新西兰拥有许多特有雀形目鸟类，它们易感染新出现的传染病。然而，人们对雀形目鸟类中的病毒知之甚少，在包括新西兰在内的一些国家，对野生雀形目鸟类的病毒组的研究也很少。我们使用宏转录组测序技术对新西兰特有和引入的雀形目鸟类的病毒组进行了研究。结果，我们从 12 种无明显疾病症状的特有和引入的鸟类的泄殖腔拭子中鉴定出了 34 种可能的禽病毒。其中包括在欧亚八哥（引入种）、歌鸲（引入种）和银眼/黄眼企鹅（引入种）中发现的一种新型腺病毒、伊尔托病毒和星状病毒。这是首次在新西兰鉴定到这些属的新型病毒，可能反映了先前采样不足。这也代表了首次在八哥和画眉中鉴定到伊尔托病毒和腺病毒。这三种病毒仅在引入种中发现，如果它们跨越物种界限，可能对特有种构成威胁，特别是具有疾病关联史的伊尔托病毒和腺病毒。新西兰鸟类群需要进一步进行病毒研究和监测，特别是在引入种和特有种中。
