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.