Łukaszuk Ewa, Dziewulska Daria, Varsani Arvind, Stenzel Tomasz
Department of Poultry Diseases, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Warmia and Mazury in Olsztyn, ul. Oczapowskiego 13, 10-719, Olsztyn, Poland.
Genomed S. A., Warsaw, Poland.
Sci Rep. 2025 May 31;15(1):19108. doi: 10.1038/s41598-025-03252-9.
Members of Orthocoronavirinae subfamily are common among avian species and responsible for diseases in poultry. Unfortunately, knowledge of their diversity and potential pathogenic influence in pigeons is so far scarce. This study describes the first determination of a complete genomic sequence of a member of Gammacoronavirus genus in pigeons, likely representing new species within the Igacovirus subgenus. The newly obtained sequence appears to be closely related to partial gammacoronavirus sequences identified in pigeons from Poland, Spain, Finland and China, which highlights the wide geographical distribution of this virus. Direct quantitative analysis was performed in sampled pigeons to assess the potential connection of the presence of the virus and the occurrence of enteric disease, and while no statistically significant difference in the viral genome copy numbers was found between the diseased and healthy group, the similar detection rate in both groups is noteworthy. This result obtained from the analysis of 153 cloacal swab samples suggests that the presence of the virus likely is not associated with the occurrence of disease in their host. The study accentuates the need to further study the coronaviruses of avian origin especially considering the seemingly often occurrence of asymptomatic coronaviral infections and their broad geographical distribution.
正冠状病毒亚科的成员在鸟类中很常见，并导致家禽发病。遗憾的是，目前关于它们在鸽子中的多样性及其潜在致病影响的了解还很匮乏。本研究描述了首次测定鸽子中伽马冠状病毒属一个成员的完整基因组序列，该病毒可能代表伊加科病毒亚属内的一个新物种。新获得的序列似乎与在波兰、西班牙、芬兰和中国的鸽子中鉴定出的部分伽马冠状病毒序列密切相关，这凸显了该病毒广泛的地理分布。对采样的鸽子进行了直接定量分析，以评估病毒的存在与肠道疾病发生之间的潜在联系，虽然在患病组和健康组之间未发现病毒基因组拷贝数有统计学上的显著差异，但两组相似的检出率值得注意。对153份泄殖腔拭子样本的分析结果表明，病毒的存在可能与其宿主疾病的发生无关。该研究强调了进一步研究禽源冠状病毒的必要性，特别是考虑到无症状冠状病毒感染似乎经常发生且地理分布广泛。
