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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Vet. Sci.
Sec. Veterinary Epidemiology and Economics
Volume 11 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fvets.2024.1508617
This article is part of the Research Topic Sequencing and Phylogenetic Analysis as a Tool in Molecular Epidemiology of Veterinary Infectious Diseases - Volume II View all 3 articles

Metavirome analysis of domestic sheep in Shaanxi, Gansu, and Ningxia, China

Provisionally accepted
Sinong Zhang Sinong Zhang Hui Gao Hui Gao Gang Zhang Gang Zhang Min Fang Min Fang Yunyi Kong Yunyi Kong Lingling Jiang Lingling Jiang Qiang Liu Qiang Liu Pu Wang Pu Wang Yanling Liu Yanling Liu Yong Li Yong Li *
  • Ningxia University, Yinchuan, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Sheep play an important role in China's agricultural development, but they are also potential hosts for many viruses, some of which have been identified as zoonotic pathogens, which may pose a serious threat to social public health and animal husbandry. Therefore, clarifying the characteristics of viruses in sheep will provide an important basis for the study of pathogenic ecology and viral evolution of viruses carried by sheep. We collected nasal and anal swabs from 688 sheep in 22 counties in Shaanxi, Gansu, and Ningxia, China, between January 2022 and July 2023, and utilized next-generation sequencing technology and bioinformatics approaches to identify the viruses in the samples. A total of 38 virus families carried by sheep were identified, including 12 ssRNA (+) virus families, 2 dsRNA virus families, 8 ssDNA (+) virus families, and 18 dsDNA virus families. Among them, Astroviridae, Coronaviridae, Picornaviridae, and Tobaniviridae in RNA virus families and Herpesviridae, Adenoviridae, and Circoviridae in DNA virus families are all viruses that are frequently detected in most ruminants. Alpha and beta diversity results showed that there was no difference in the overall richness and diversity of RNA and DNA viruses among the three provinces (P > 0.05). The evolutionary analysis demonstrated a tight link between the viral members carried by sheep and other ruminant viruses, implying that these viruses may spread across different species of ruminants. This study established a library of RNA and DNA viruses carried by sheep in the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia region, providing an overview of the viruses present in this population. The findings offer valuable data for further research on virus evolution and monitoring in sheep.

    Keywords: Sheep, Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Region, viral metagenomics, RNA virus, DNA virus

    Received: 10 Oct 2024; Accepted: 21 Nov 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Zhang, Gao, Zhang, Fang, Kong, Jiang, Liu, Wang, Liu and Li. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Yong Li, Ningxia University, Yinchuan, China

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