Goose parvovirus--an autonomous member of the dependovirus genus?

Goose parvovirus is the etiological agent of Derzsy's disease, a fatal hepatitis of young geese. The virus infects geese and Muscovy ducks and can be propagated in the laboratory in primary embryonic goose fibroblasts. To date the virus has only been classified by morphological, biochemical, and culture characteristics as an autonomous parvovirus. We now report the cloning and partial sequencing of 3434 nucleotides of the viral genome. Three overlapping clones were obtained, encoding regions in the nonstructural and capsid coding region. The nucleotide sequence show little homology to other autonomous parvoviruses but 55% homology to the dependovirus AAV2. The homology to AAV2 was also confirmed at the amino acid level (nonstructural protein 55%, capsid coding region 51%). DNA cross hybridization studies indicate an even closer similarity of goose parvovirus to the yet unsequenced human dependoviruses AAV1 and AAV3 than to AAV2. These findings suggest that goose parvovirus may be genetically related to the dependovirus genus rather than to the other autonomous parvoviruses.