ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Vet. Sci.
Sec. Zoological Medicine
This article is part of the Research TopicSurveillance and Control of Wildlife Diseases: Integrating Ecology, Pathology, and Public HealthView all 14 articles
Molecular Epidemiology and Genomic Analysis of Bulbul Coronavirus in Guangdong, China
Provisionally accepted
- 1Guangdong Eco-Engineering Polytechnic, Guangzhou, China
- 2Foshan University, Foshan, China
- 3Eco-Engineering Department, Guangdong Eco-Engineering Polytechnic, Guangzhou, China
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Bulbul coronavirus (BuCoV), a deltacoronavirus recently identified in passerine birds, remains poorly characterized regarding its ecology and evolutionary dynamics. From 2023 to 2024, we conducted molecular surveillance across 12 regions in Guangdong Province, China. Among 2,145 avian fecal samples, BuCoV was detected exclusively in Shenzhen (3/168, 1.78%). The complete genomes of representative strains were obtained using next-generation sequencing and subsequently analyzed for phylogeny and recombination. The Shenzhen strain GD2411 exhibited the highest nucleotide identity with BuCoV strains HKU11-796 (97.26%) and HKU11-934 (96.79%), but far lower similarity (78.9–82.4%) to other deltacoronaviruses. Phylogenetic analysis placed GD2411 in a monophyletic clade with HKU11 strains, while recombination analyses revealed mosaic structures within the spike (S) gene, involving multiple coronavirus lineages. Thirty-one amino acid substitutions were detected in the S protein, together with mutations in RdRp, 3CLpro, and nucleocapsid, which may affect replication, host adaptation, or immune evasion. These findings provide essential baseline genomic and epidemiological data critical for understanding BuCoV diversity and assessing potential risks in southern China.
Keywords: Bulbul coronavirus, genetic evolution, metagenomic sequencing, Real-Time PCR, Sequence Analysis
Received: 04 Jul 2025; Accepted: 12 Feb 2026.
Copyright: © 2026 Zhang, Chen, Li, Li and Liu. 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:
Shuting Chen
Hao Liu
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