Premium
Outbreak of gastroenteritis in military recruits associated with serotype 3 astrovirus infection
Author(s) -
Belliot Gaël,
Laveran Henri,
Monroe Stephan S.
Publication year - 1997
Publication title -
journal of medical virology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.782
H-Index - 121
eISSN - 1096-9071
pISSN - 0146-6615
DOI - 10.1002/(sici)1096-9071(199702)51:2<101::aid-jmv3>3.0.co;2-b
Subject(s) - astrovirus , virology , serotype , serology , outbreak , virus , seroconversion , biology , rotavirus , antibody , immunology
A serotype 3 astrovirus was identified in stool samples from an outbreak of acute gastroenteritis that occurred among military recruits in France. Sixteen stools samples and eight pairs of acute‐ and convalescent‐phase serum were collected from affected individuals. Astrovirus was detected in two stool samples by electron microscopy and in four stool samples by reverse transcriptase‐polymerase chain reaction (RT‐PCR). Seroconversion to the astrovirus present in one stool was detected in seven patients by using solid‐phase immune electron microscopy (SPIEM) and dot blot. For three patients, the serological results were consistent with the PCR results, indicating that astrovirus was a cause of gastroenteritis in these young adults. This study describes the characterization of the serotype 3 astrovirus associated with this outbreak. The virus has a buoyant density in cesium chloride of 1.365 gm/ml and contains two proteins immunoprecipitated with rabbit serum. Only the larger protein was recognized by immunoblotting using a convalescent‐phase human serum. The protein composition of this virus differs from that reported for serotype 1 astrovirus, indicating heterogeneity in the capsid composition among astrovirus serotypes. J Med Virol 51:101–106, 1997 . © 1997 Wiley‐Liss, Inc. This article is a US Government work and, as such, is in the public domain in the United States of America.