Supplementary Material for: A Molecular Epidemiological Investigation of Carriage of the Adeno-Associated Virus in Murine Rodents and House Shrews in China

<b><i>Objective:</i></b> To investigate the prevalence of the adeno-associated virus (AAV) in murine rodents and house shrews in 4 provinces of China. <b><i>Methods:</i></b> A total of 469 murine rodents and 19 house shrews were captured between May 2015 and May 2017. <i>Cap</i> gene of AAV sequences was obtained to evaluate the genetic characteristics of rat AAV. <b><i>Results:</i></b> Rat AAVs were found in 54.7% (267/488) of throat swabs, 14.3% (70/488) of fecal samples, and 18.4% (41/223) of serum samples. Rat AAVs were detected in 3 species of murine rodents including <i>Rattus norvegicus</i> (34.8%), <i>R. tanezumi</i> (43.0%), and <i>R. losea</i> (2.3%), and house shrews (<i>Suncus murinus</i>) (26.1%) from the selected sampling sites. Fourteen near-full-length <i>Cap</i> gene sequences, ranging in length from 2,156 to 2,169 nt, were isolated from the fecal samples of <i>R. norvegicus</i> and <i>R. tanezumi</i>. These 14 sequences shared a high identity of 97.4% at the nucleotide level and 99.1% at the amino acid level. Phylogenetic analysis showed that the rat AAV formed a distinct clade, distinguishable from the AAV discovered in humans and in other animals. <b><i>Conclusions:</i></b> A high prevalence of rat AAV that was highly conserved within the <i>Cap</i> gene was found in 3 common murine rodents and house shrews in China.