Metagenomic Analysis of Environmental Samples from Wildlife Rescue Station at Poyang Lake, China.

Objective: To improve the understanding of the virome and bacterial microbiome in the wildlife rescue station of Poyang Lake, China.

Methods: Ten smear samples were collected in March 2019. Metagenomic sequencing was performed to delineate bacterial and viral diversity. Taxonomic analysis was performed using the Kraken2 and Bracken methods. A maximum-likelihood tree was constructed based on the RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp) region of picornavirus.

Results: We identified 363 bacterial and 6 viral families. A significant difference in microbial and viral abundance was found between samples S01-S09 and S10. In S01-S09, members of and were the most prevalent, while in S10, the most prevalent bacteria class was . Among S01-S09, members of and were the most prevalent, while the dominant virus family of S10 was . The full genome of the pigeon mesivirus-like virus (NC-BM-233) was recovered from S10 and contained an open reading frame of 8,124 nt. It showed the best hit to the pigeon mesivirus 2 polyprotein, with 84.10% amino acid identity. Phylogenetic analysis showed that RdRp clustered into .

Conclusion: This study provides an initial assessment of the bacteria and viruses in the cage-smeared samples, broadens our knowledge of viral and bacterial diversity, and is a way to discover potential pathogens in wild birds.