Astrovirus /As·tro·vi·rus/ (as´tro-vi?rus) an unofficial name
for a group of RNA viruses with a single-stranded genome about
the same size as that of the picornaviruses; they cause
gastroenteritis in humans and other animals and hepatitis
Astroviruses that infect humans have been poorly studied due to
the fact that they do not grow in culture. Astroviruses belong
to the family Astroviridae along with a virus known as
mamastrovirus. They were first described in the year 1975 using
electron microscopes during an outbreak of diarrhoea. Astrovirus
has a non-segmented, single stranded, positive sense RNA genome
within a non-enveloped icosahedral capsid. In 1995 it was shown
that astrovirus was the main viral cause of infectious
intestinal disease in England (Roderick et al., 1995).