3.4 Overall conclusions of the Bradford Hill-based assessment on
the accumulated evidence of PoAstVs’ ability to cause disease in swine:
This scoping review summarized several gaps in knowledge with respect to
different aspects of epidemiology of PoAstV3 including clinical
significance, detection, cellular tropism, infection dynamics, endemic
potential, transmission and pathophysiology. There are a few studies
reporting associations of astroviruses and enteric disease, and
therefore there is a need for further studying this association. Also,
Boros et al., 2017 showed neuronal localization of PoAstV3 in CNS
samples of clinical pigs suggestive of astrovirus neuroinfection.
However, collectively, there was not enough information in the
literature to conclude that astroviruses cause disease in pigs. Applying
the Bradford Hills guidelines provided a useful strategy to investigate
and summarize the available body of knowledge regarding the ability of
PoAstV3 to cause disease in pigs.