BACKGROUND Diarrheal diseases remain a major cause of mortality in Africa and worldwide. While the burden of rotavirus is well described, population-based rates of disease caused by norovirus, sapovirus, and astrovirus are lacking, particularly in developing countries. METHODS Data on diarrhea cases were collected through a population-based surveillance platform including healthcare encounter...

A large, highly prolific swine farm in Hungary had a 2-year history of neurologic disease among newly weaned (25- to 35-day-old) pigs, with clinical signs of posterior paraplegia and a high mortality rate. Affected pigs that were necropsied had encephalomyelitis and neural necrosis. Porcine astrovirus type 3 was identified by reverse transcription PCR and in situ hybridization in brain and spin...

The incidence of astrovirus infection was determined among infants and young children admitted to Alice Springs Hospital (central Australia) with gastroenteritis from 1995 to 1998. Astrovirus was detected by reverse transcription-PCR in 33 of 495 stool samples, and this represented 4.3% of a total of 774 stool samples tested for astrovirus, rotavirus, and Norwalk-like viruses. Astrovirus incide...

Astroviruses are a leading cause of infantile viral gastroenteritis worldwide. Very little is known about the mechanisms of astrovirus-induced diarrhea. One reason for this is the lack of a small-animal model. Recently, we isolated a novel strain of astrovirus (TAstV-2) from turkeys with the emerging infectious disease poult enteritis mortality syndrome. In the present studies, we demonstrate t...

Two experiments were conducted to determine intestinal disaccharidase activity in 1-day-old commercial turkey poults inoculated with astrovirus. Small intestinal samples were collected on days 0.5, 1, 3, and 7 postinoculation (PI) in Expt. 1 and on days 7, 10, and 14 PI in Expt. 2 and evaluated for specific maltase activity (SMA). Astrovirus infection was verified on day 7 PI by immune electron...

This study assessed the epidemiologic characteristics of acute viral gastroenteritis in hospitalized children. A stool sample obtained from each child was analyzed for the presence of astrovirus, calicivirus, rotavirus, adenovirus, enterovirus, and digestive bacteria. Of the 438 stool samples obtained, 138 tested positive for > or =1 pathogen during the winters of 1997-1998 and 1998-1999 (P<.00...

Avian astroviruses were detected by reverse transcriptase and polymerase chain reaction in intestinal contents collected from commercial chickens and turkeys from throughout the United States from 2003 through 2005. Astroviruses were detected in birds from both healthy and poorly performing flocks with or without enteric disease. Phylogenetic analysis was performed with sequence data from the p...

A method based on infection of CaCo-2 cultured cell monolayers (CC) and reverse transcription-PCR (RT-PCR) was developed for the specific detection of infectious astrovirus. The procedure was validated by titrating poliovirus stocks in parallel in CaCo-2 cells by determining the most probable number of cytopathogenic units and by cell culture and subsequent RT-PCR (CC-RT-PCR). CC-RT-PCR was the...

BACKGROUND Evidence of neurotropic astroviruses has been established using novel genetic methods in cattle suffering from viral encephalitis of previously unknown origin. OBJECTIVES To describe the clinical signs observed in cattle with astrovirus-associated encephalitis. ANIMALS Eight cattle (4 cows, 3 heifers, and 1 bull of 4 different breeds) admitted to the Clinic for Ruminants for neur...