Wang Dan-Shu, Zou Ying-Ying, Liu Qian, Huang Hao, Han Pei-Yu, Zhao Jun-Ying, Zong Li-Dong, Qiu Ye, Zhang Yun-Zhi, Ge Xing-Yi
College of Biology, Hunan Provincial Key Laboratory of Medical Virology, Hunan Research Center of the Basic Discipline for Cell Signaling, Hunan University, 52 Tianma Rd, Changsha, Hunan, 410012, China.
Institute of Preventive Medicine, School of Public Health, Yunnan Key Laboratory of Screening and Research on Anti-pathogenic Plant Resources from Western Yunnan, Yunnan Key Laboratory of Zoonotic Disease Cross-border Prevention and Quarantine, Dali University, 22 Wanhua Rd, Dali, Yunnan, 671000, China.
Virus Evol. 2025 Aug 4;11(1):veaf060. doi: 10.1093/ve/veaf060. eCollection 2025.
(γ-CoV) primarily infects poultry, wild birds, and marine mammals. The widespread distribution and circulation of γ-CoV in the ecological environment may lead to sustained transmission and economic loss. To better understand the diversity of γ-CoV in wild birds, we collected 482 wild-bird faecal samples from Yunnan, encompassing 14 bird species. We detected 12 γ-CoV-positive samples in five bird species, characterized five complete genomes-HNU5-1, HNU5-2, HNU5-3, HNU6-1, and HNU6-2-and proposed that these genomes represent two viral species. The HNU5 strains were derived from black-headed gull (), while the HNU6 strains came from mallard (), and both of those were recombinant. The HNU5 strain exhibited the highest sequence identity (~95%) with a γ-CoV strain isolated from (GenBank accession: PP845452). Similarly, the HNU6 strain showed 95% nucleotide identity with a γ-CoV strain (GenBank accession: PP845437) derived from . Taxonomic analysis confirmed that HNU6s belong to the species, while HNU5s are attributed to a new species. Cross-species analysis revealed active host-switching events among γ-CoVs, indicating potential transmission of γ-CoVs from marine mammals to wild bird and from wild bird to poultry, and inter-wild bird and interpoultry transmission. In summary, we report five new γ-CoV strains in wild birds and outline the cross-species transmission of γ-CoVs. Our findings link γ-CoV hosts across different natural environments and provide new insights for exploring γ-CoVs.
γ冠状病毒（γ-CoV）主要感染家禽、野生鸟类和海洋哺乳动物。γ-CoV在生态环境中的广泛分布和传播可能导致持续传播和经济损失。为了更好地了解野生鸟类中γ-CoV的多样性，我们从云南采集了482份野生鸟类粪便样本，涵盖14种鸟类。我们在5种鸟类中检测到12份γ-CoV阳性样本，对5个完整基因组——HNU5-1、HNU5-2、HNU5-3、HNU6-1和HNU6-2进行了特征分析，并提出这些基因组代表两种病毒物种。HNU5毒株源自黑头鸥（），而HNU6毒株来自绿头鸭（），且两者均为重组毒株。HNU5毒株与从（GenBank登录号：PP845452）分离出的一株γ-CoV毒株具有最高的序列同一性（约95%）。同样，HNU6毒株与源自的一株γ-CoV毒株（GenBank登录号：PP845437）具有95%的核苷酸同一性。分类学分析证实，HNU6属于物种，而HNU5属于一个新物种。跨物种分析揭示了γ-CoV之间活跃的宿主转换事件，表明γ-CoV可能从海洋哺乳动物传播到野生鸟类、从野生鸟类传播到家禽，以及在野生鸟类之间和家禽之间传播。总之，我们报告了野生鸟类中的5株新γ-CoV毒株，并概述了γ-CoV的跨物种传播。我们的研究结果将不同自然环境中的γ-CoV宿主联系起来，为探索γ-CoV提供了新的见解。
