Human Bocavirus Circulating in Patients With Acute Gastroenteritis in Taiwan, 2018-2022

Abstract

Human Bocavirus (HBoV) has been identified as a viral agent with a global presence, especially in young patients with gastrointestinal infections. In this study, we aimed to evaluate the epidemiological patterns of the HBoV genotypes associated with acute gastroenteritis (AGE) in Taiwan. A total of 2,994 AGE fecal samples from several diarrhea outbreaks from 2018 to 2022 were analyzed. Of them, 73 positive samples were detected in 3 different HBoV genotypes, 30 (41.1%) were from HBoV1, 37 (50.7%) were from HBoV2, and 6 (8.2%) were from HBoV3. HBoV1 and HBoV2 were the 2 major epidemic genotypes in Taiwan during the study period and have seasonal distinct patterns with a epidemic peak from October to the following March. Phylogeny reconstruction and evaluation were implemented in Mega 11, the results revealed that most HBoV1 strains in Taiwan appeared to be closely related to those strains from other Asian countries. The HBoV2 exhibited substantial genetic diversity and the HBoV3 genes showed discordance of groups.