The Isolation and Characterization of Goose Astrovirus Genotype 2 from Laying Hens with Nephritis in Shandong Province, China

Goose astrovirus genotype 2 (GoAstV2), as a contagious pathogen of fatal visceral gout in goslings, has been widely distributed in major goose-producing regions in China since 2017, leading to significant economic losses to the Chinese goose industry. In this study, a novel goose astrovirus (GoAstV-SDHZ) was isolated and identified from laying hens with nephritis for the first time. Phylogenetic analysis of the sequenced genome of ORF2 gene revealed that the GoAstV-SDHZ strain clustered into Group 2 GoAstVs and shared the highest identity with the other representative GoAstV2 in the nucleotide (ORF1a: 97.2–99.7%; ORF1b: 98.4–99.8%; ORF2: 97.2–99.9%) and amino acid sequence (ORF1a: 98.2–100%; ORF1b: 98.8–99.6%; ORF2: 97.4–99.6%). In summary, this study provides the first evidence of the GoAstV2 infection in Chinese laying hens, which raises potential threat to the poultry industry in China.