High-throughput sequencing (HTS) is a technology platform enabling us to build smarter, stronger national biosecurity systems for the detection and identification of novel and existing pathogens. However, for HTS users and biosecurity agencies to make informed decisions about reporting viruses of biosecurity concern through HTS data analysis, there is a requirement for a curated database of verified genomic sequences that is efficiently adaptable to new biosecurity risks. Without this curated database, HTS users commonly use publicly available genomic databases that contain vast volumes of sequencing data that encompass all taxa, creating complexities in HTS analysis and impeding rapid pathogen identification. Problematically, these large, non-curated databases also contain many partial and misclassified sequences, leading to incorrect taxonomic identification of pathogens from HTS data.
We present the Australian Biosecurity Genomic Database (ABGD), a curated collection of reference viral genome sequences based on the Australian national notifiable disease lists for both terrestrial and aquatic animals. The database includes a single verified sequence (the exemplar species sequence, where relevant) for each of the 89 virus species across 31 viral families that are associated with or cause these notifiable diseases, as recognised by the World Organisation for Animal Health. The open-source ABGD on GitHub provides usage guidance documents and is intended to support building a culture in Australian HTS communities that promotes the use of quality-assured, standardised, and verified databases for Australia's national biosecurity interests.
Database URL: https://github.com/ausbiopathgenDB/AustralianBiosecurityGenomicDatabase