Faecal virome of red foxes from peri-urban areas. (April 2016) - Lojkić, Ivana
Highlights: High-throughput sequencing and viral metagenomic analysis were performed on faecal samples of juvenile and adult foxes. Fox picobirnavirus was more closely related to the porcine and human picobirnaviruses than to fox picobirnavirus. New fox circovirus highly similar to dog circovirus of is de novo asembled from the high-throughput sequencing data. Abstract: Red foxes ( Vulpes vulpes ) are the most abundant carnivore species in the Northern Hemisphere. Since their populations are well established in peri-urban and urban areas, they represent a potential reservoir of viruses that transmit from wildlife to humans or domestic animals. In this study, we evaluated the faecal virome of juvenile and adult foxes from peri-urban areas in central Croatia. The dominating mammalian viruses were fox picobirnavirus and parvovirus. The highest number of viral reads ( N = 1412) was attributed to a new fox circovirus and complete viral genome was de novo assembled from the high-throughput sequencing data. Fox circovirus is highly similar to dog circoviruses identified in diseased dogs in USA and Italy, and to a recently discovered circovirus of foxes with neurologic disease from the United Kingdom. Our fox picobirnavirus was more closely related to the porcine and human picobirnaviruses than to known fox picobirnaviruses.