ABSTRACT
<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To conduct an epidemiological and genotype analysis of sapovirus (SaV) associated with sporadic diarrhea in Shenzhen in the year 2009.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>A total of 852 fecal samples were collected from sporadic cases of diarrhea in Shenzhen in 2009 and detected by reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) using the primers of SLV5317/5749. The PCR products were analyzed with 1.5% agarose gel electrophoresis and sequenced to construct the phylogenetic tree.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>Sixteen samples were found positive for SaV, with a positivity rate of 1.88%. Sequence analysis identified 8 isolates as SaV GI genotype (including 3 SaV GI.1 and 5 SaV GI.2), 7 as SaV GIV genotype, and 1 as GII genotype.</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>SaV infection is present in Shenzhen with GI as the predominant genotype. This is the first report of SaV GIV strains in China, which differs from the strains of Anhui-A141 and Beijing-CHN99/BJ360, suggesting the genotypic variety of SaV infection in China.</p>