ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Immunol.
Sec. Viral Immunology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2025.1680275
This article is part of the Research TopicAntiviral Innate Immune Mechanisms in Animal HostsView all 10 articles
Metatranscriptomic Analysis of the Gut Virome in Muscovy Ducks Reveals a Novel Duck Reovirus Potentially Associated with Hepatic and Splenic Hemorrhage
Provisionally accepted- 1Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China
- 2Wens Foodstuff Group Co Ltd, Yunfu, China
- 3South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou, China
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
Ducks rank among the most important sources of animal protein globally, yet hepatic and splenic hemorrhage and necrosis in Muscovy ducks present a critical challenge to the poultry industry. The causes behind such diseases are often multifaceted, involving both established and newly emerging pathogens. In this study, we leveraged metatranscriptomic sequencing to profile the intestinal viral communities of healthy and diseased Muscovy ducks from a Guangdong Province farm that experienced a hepatic and splenic hemorrhage in June 2024. Our findings revealed marked differences in viral community profiles between the two groups, with the diseased cohort exhibiting higher α-diversity. Taxonomic analyses across multiple levels uncovered significant variations in viral composition, including shifts in phylums like Uroviricota and families such as Demerecviridae. At the genus and species levels, several bacteriophages and eukaryotic viruses displayed differential abundance. Notably, Avian orthoreovirus was detected exclusively in diseased ducks, with a specific novel duck reovirus (NDRV) validated via RT-qPCR as a potential contributor to hepatic and splenic pathogenesis. In contrast, known pathogens such as Duck hepatitis A virus (DHAV) and Fowl adenovirus serotype 4 (FAdV-4) were not detected. This study constitutes the first comprehensive analysis of the Muscovy duck gut striking 删除[admin]: virome, highlighting NDRV as a potential causative agent and emphasizing the utility of metatranscriptomics in pathogen discovery.
Keywords: Muscovy ducks, metatranscriptomic sequencing, intestinal viral communities, Novel duck reovirus, Hepatic and Splenic Hemorrhage
Received: 05 Aug 2025; Accepted: 06 Oct 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Liu, Kang, Wang, Zeng, Huang, Yang, Geng, Liao, Luo, Yan, Yin, Cao, Chen, Zhang, Peng and Cao. 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: Yongchang Cao, caoych@mail.sysu.edu.cn
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.