Sapovirus is a genetically diverse genus of single-stranded positive-sense RNA, non-enveloped viruses within the family Caliciviridae.

Sapovirus commonly occurs in children and infants and therefore is often spread in nurseries and daycares; however, it has also been found in long-term care facilities.

However, additional symptoms may occur, including chills, nausea, headache, abdominal cramps, myalgia, and fever though it is very rare.

While patients frequently start to show symptoms after the 1–4 day incubation period, there have been cases in which an individual is asymptomatic.

Although the individual does not show symptoms, they are still capable of spreading the virus through the general mode of transmission, which is the oral-fecal route.

[3] There have been at least 21 complete genomes for sapovirus analyzed and identified already, all of which can be classified into five categories (GI-GV), which can further be divided into different genetic clusters.

[12] Reverse transcription-PCR (RT-PCR) is the most commonly used detection tool for sapovirus because of its broad reactivity, sensitivity, speed, and specificity.

Because of the diversity of the sapovirus, hundreds of primers have been designed in order to specifically target and amplify RNA-dependent RNA polymerase.

The diversity of the many strains of sapovirus makes it difficult to detect the wide array of antigens that may be present.

The cytoplasmic replication cycle is as follows: Using electron microscopy, the sapovirus was first seen in diarrheic stool samples from the United Kingdom in 1977 and was soon known as a gastroenteritis pathogen.

While the virus was first seen in the United Kingdom, "the prototype strain of the genus Sapovirus was from another outbreak in Sapporo, Japan in 1982.

"Currently, the family Caliciviridae consists of five established genera: Sapovirus, Norovirus, Lagovirus, Vesivirus, and Nebovirus.

"Using data from the Oregon and Minnesota public health departments, researchers investigated 2161 gastroenteritis outbreaks between 2002 through 2009.

Of these, 142 outbreaks (7 percent) were found to be norovirus-negative, and 93 of these were further tested for other gastrointestinal viruses including sapovirus, astrovirus, adenovirus, and rotavirus.

The researchers further explained that while the proportion of sapovirus occurring in the long-term care facilities was high, it was likely an artifact of legally mandated outbreak reporting.

Norovirus and sapovirus genomes are very closely related; the distinction between the two can only be made from the differences in their coding strategy and reading frames.