Equine coronavirus (ECoV) is a Betacoronavirus recently associated clinically and epidemiologically with emerging outbreaks of pyrogenic, enteric, and/or neurologic disease in horses in the United States, Japan, and Europe. We describe the pathologic, immunohistochemical, ultrastructural, and molecular findings in 2 horses and 1 donkey that succumbed to natural infection with ECoV. One horse and the donkey (case Nos. 1, 3) had severe diffuse necrotizing enteritis with marked villous attenuation, epithelial cell necrosis at the tips of the villi, neutrophilic and fibrinous extravasation into the small intestinal lumen (pseudomembrane formation), as well as crypt necrosis, microthrombosis, and hemorrhage. The other horse (case No. 2) had hyperammonemic encephalopathy with Alzheimer type II astrocytosis throughout the cerebral cortex. ECoV was detected by quantitative polymerase chain reaction in small intestinal tissue, contents, and/or feces, and coronavirus antigen was detected by immunohistochemistry in the small intestine in all cases. Coronavirus-like particles characterized by spherical, moderately electron lucent, enveloped virions with distinct peplomer-like structures projecting from the surface were detected by negatively stained transmission electron microscopy in small intestine in case No. 1, and transmission electron microscopy of fixed small intestinal tissue from the same case revealed similar 85- to 100-nm intracytoplasmic particles located in vacuoles and free in the cytoplasm of unidentified (presumably epithelial) cells. Sequence comparison showed 97.9% to 99.0% sequence identity with the ECoV-NC99 and Tokachi09 strains. All together, these results indicate that ECoV is associated with necrotizing enteritis and hyperammonemic encephalopathy in equids.

We report the identification of a novel papillomavirus, Fulmarus glacialis papillomavirus 1 (FgPV1), present within an interdigital foot mass of a Northern Fulmar (Fulmarus glacialis). The mass of interest was composed of normal stratified and keratinized epithelium and dense mesenchymal cells with central cartilaginous islands. Within the nuclei of many chondrocytes were loose aggregates or paracrystalline arrays of virions approximately 50 nm in size. Degenerate polymerase chain reaction was used to identify the virus as a putative papillomavirus, and the entire viral genome of 8132 base pairs was subsequently amplified and sequenced. Analysis revealed canonical papillomavirus architecture, including the early open reading frames E6, E7, E1, and E2 and the 2 late proteins L1 and L2. FgPV1 is most closely related to a cluster of avian and reptilian papillomaviruses as visualized by phylogenetic trees. This observation suggests that papillomavirus virion production can occur in mesenchymal cells. Keywords birds, histocytochemistry, chondrocytes, papillomavirus infections, inclusion bodies-viral, transmission electron microscopy, genome-viralThe Papillomaviridae family continues to expand with the ongoing discovery of previously unidentified species occupying over 30 different genera. 46 Avian papillomaviruses have been described in more than 12 avian species and 6 orders 27 since the 1970s. 28,33 In that time, only 3 have been fully sequenced: Francolinus leucoscepus papillomavirus 1 (FlPV1), Psittacus erithacus papillomavirus (PePV), and Fringilla coelebs papillomavirus (FcPV).31,41,44 Among species described so far, avian papillomaviruses and mammalian papillomaviruses share epitheliotropism and similar tissue distribution. In psittacines, virus has been detected in intestinal mucosal cells, 13,16,19,23,27,30,40 nasolacrimal epithelium, 13,16,22 and oral mucosa at the commissure of beaks. 22There is also a report of papillomavirus-associated growths on the legs and feet of two related finch species, Fringilla. coelebs and Fringilla montifringilla. 31 To date, there have been no reports of papillomaviruses or any neoplastic lesions in free-ranging seabirds despite the identification of papillomaviruses in numerous marine mammals, 5,35 including dolphins, 36,37 porpoises, 43 and sea turtles. 18Regardless of host species, productive papillomavirus infection (formation of infectious particles) has been invariably tied to the terminal differentiation of epithelial cells. A small number of papillomaviruses are capable of infecting and transforming fibroblasts, but these infections are considered nonproductive. The members of the Deltapapillomavirus genus such as bovine (Bos taurus) papillomaviruses 1 and 2 (BPV1, BPV2), for example, can infect fibroblasts in cattle, horses, and cats and is associated with transformation in these cells, causing the formation of fibropapillomas, also known as sarcoids in nonbovid species. 20 In these cases, virion production is considered limited to infected cells within the o...

Epizootic bovine abortion (EBA), first identified in the 1950s, is a major contributor of economic loss to western U.S. beef producers. The causative agent proved elusive for over fifty years until a novel Deltaproteobacteria was identified as the etiologic agent in 2005. The microbe, which has yet to be successfully cultured in vitro, has proven difficult to purify from necropsy tissues. Thus, phylogenetic characterization has been limited to analysis of the 16S ribosomal RNA (rRNA) gene (AF503916), which placed this bacterium in the order Myxococcales, suborder Sorangiineae, family Polyangiaceae and most closely related to Sorangium cellulosum. The focus of the current study was to further expand the morphologic characterization and taxonomic placement of this bacteria, named here as Pajaroellobacter abortibovis. Modified Gram staining, combined with transmission electron microscopy, provide strong evidence that the bacterium is gram negative. Flow cytometric analysis identified the presence of P. abortibovis in murine leukocytes. While attempts to sequence ten universally conserved protein-coding genes using previously published degenerative primers failed, redesigned primers based solely upon Deltaproteobacteria facilitated the partial sequencing of two genes; fusA (JQ173112) and pyrG (JQ173111). Primers designed in a similar fashion generated a partial sequence of the 23S rRNA gene (JQ173113) These sequences, combined with a revised 16S rRNA phylogenic analysis, support the placement of this bacteria as a unique genus separate from Sorangium.