Etiological identification and genotyping of norovirus detected in gastroenteritis outbreaks in Fengtai, Beijing

Objective To identify the pathogens causing 3 gastroenteritis outbreaks during May-June 2014 in Fengtai, Beijing and detect genotypes of the pathogens. Methods A total of 62 samples were collected from the cases to detect norovirus by using real-time fluorescent quantitative PCR. The positive samples were amplified by using one-step RT-PCR, then the amplification products were sequenced for nucleotide sequence alignments and phylogenetic analysis with BioEdit and Mega 6.0 software. Results Thirty six samples were norovirus GⅡ positive (58.06%).The alignment and phylogenetic analysis revealed that the outbreak in child care setting was caused by norovirus GⅡ.7, the outbreak in school 1 was caused by norovirus GⅡ.8 and the outbreak in school 2 was caused by norovirus GⅡ.6. Conclusion Norovirus was the pathogen causing the gastroenteritis outbreaks in Fengtai, and multi genotype norovirus co-circulated in Fengtai.