The first evidence of shaking mink syndrome‐astrovirus associated encephalitis in farmed minks, China

A novel neurological disorder, shaking mink syndrome (SMS), emerged in Denmark and Sweden in 2000. SMS has seldom been reported in China, but the causative agent has not been detected in the country. SMS outbreaks occurred in multiple provinces in 2020. A total of 44 brain samples from minks associated with SMS were collected from Heilongjiang, Liaoning and Shandong provinces of which 28 samples (63.3%) were SMS-astrovirus (SMS-AstV)-positive by reverse transcription PCR. Histopathological examination revealed non-suppurative encephalitis in three minks. Moreover, the complete coding region sequences (CDSs, 6559 bp) of a sample collected from a 2-month-old mink (termed SMS-AstV-H1, GSA accession No. SAMC816786) were amplified by PCR and Sanger sequencing. The complete CDS and open reading frame 2 sequences of SMS-AstV-H1 were 94.3% and 96.4% identical to an SMS-AstV strain (GenBank accession number: GU985458). Phylogenetically, SMS-AstV-H1 was closely related to an SMS-AstV strain (GU985458). Based on the above results, we describe SMS-AstV-associated encephalitis in farmed minks in China. Future studies need to focus on epidemiology, virus isolation and potential interspecies transmission of SMS-AstV.