Distribution of Norovirus in Fecal-Contaminated Oyster ( Saccostrea cucullata and Solen roseomaculatus ) Tissues in Vitro.

Noroviruses are a common major cause of acute gastroenteritis in humans and are mainly associated with oyster consumption. In this investigation, 30 oysters of each of the two species (Saccostrea cucullataandSolen roseomaculatus) were collected from the northern Persian Gulf. Oysters have been exposed to norovirus genogroup II, genotype 4 (GII.4), artificially. The analysis of the contaminated oysters was carried out in three periods of time. Different oyster tissues were removed and tested for norovirus contamination, using conventional reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction assay, while comparing the efficiency of two different sets of primers. Similar to previous observations in other species, these results indicated that norovirus genogroup II is mainly accumulated in the digestive diverticula ofS. cucullataandS. roseomaculatus. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]