The first evidence of shaking mink syndrome (SMS)-astrovirus infection
in farmed minks, China
Abstract
A novel neurological disorder disease, shaking mink syndrome (SMS),
emerged in Denmark and Sweden since 2000. The SMS has seldom been
reported in China, and the causative agent is uncertain. SMS outbreaks
occurred in multiple provinces in 2020, A total of 44 brain samples from
minks associated with SMS were collected from Heilongjiang, Liaoning,
and Shandong provinces, of which 28 samples (63.3%) were SMS-Astrovirus
(SMS-AstV) positive by reverse transcription PCR. Moreover, the complete
coding region sequences (CDS) of a sample collected from a two-month-old
mink (termed SMS-Astv-H1) were amplified by PCR. The complete CDS and
ORF2 sequences of SMS-AstV-H1 were 94.3% and 96.4% identical to an
SMS-AstV strain (GenBank accession number: GU985458). Phylogenetically,
SMS-Astv-H1 was closely related to an SMS-AstV strain (GU985458). Based
on the above results, we describe the SMS-AstV infections related to SMS
among farmed minks in China. Future studies need to focus on
epidemiology, virus isolation, and potential interspecies transmission
of SMS-AstV.