An acute gastroenteritis outbreak at a primary school in Jiangxi, China, was caused by sapovirus GI.6, with 5 of 10 swab samples testing positive and showing 100% sequence homology.
Observational (n=10)
No
The outbreak was caused by sapovirus GI.6, a genotype rarely reported in Jiangxi, highlighting the need for continued molecular epidemiological surveillance.
To clarify the etiological and genetic evolutionary characteristics of an acute gastroenteritis cluster outbreak caused by sapovirus in Nanchang, Jiangxi, China. A total of 10 anal swab samples were collected from student and teacher cases during a gastroenteritis outbreak at a primary school in Nanchang, Jiangxi Province, in November 2024. Real-time fluorescent RT-PCR was used for routine gene detection of diarrhea viruses. For the sapovirus nucleic acid-positive samples, traditional RT-PCR was used for amplification, sequence determination, splicing, and genetic relationship analysis. We also conducted whole-genome sequencing on sapovirus to analyze the amino acid variations. This outbreak was caused by contact transmission. Real-time fluorescent reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction detection confirmed that 5 samples were positive for sapovirus nucleic acid, and the capsid protein gene VP1 fragments were successfully amplified. Genetic relationship analysis inferred from the phylogenetic tree revealed that the molecular type of sapovirus was the GI.6 genotype, with 100% homology among the 5 sequences. The nucleotide homology between the sequences in this study and the sapovirus GI.6 reference sequence ranged from 97.07% to 99.12%, and the amino acid homology ranged from 96.49% to 97.37%. Amino acid variation site analysis revealed that there were 4 amino acid site substitutions between them. Compared with VP1 ,the closest distance of nucleotide homology was 99.12% from Zhejiang, China, in 2023 (OR351089). Through amino acid comparison of the whole-genome sequence, we found that the similarity of sapovirus in Jiangxi Province to other reference strains in ORF1 ranged from 99.21% to 99.25%, and the similarity in ORF2 ranged from 86.8% to 88%. The causative agent of this outbreak was identified as sapovirus GI.6, a genotype rarely reported in Jiangxi. In the future, further research on the molecular epidemiology of sapovirus with more gene sites that may mutate should be strengthened.
Wang et al. (Tue,) conducted a observational in Acute gastroenteritis (n=10). Sapovirus GI.6 infection was evaluated on Sapovirus nucleic acid positivity and genetic characteristics. An acute gastroenteritis outbreak at a primary school in Jiangxi, China, was caused by sapovirus GI.6, with 5 of 10 swab samples testing positive and showing 100% sequence homology.