An Update on Canine, Feline and Bovine Papillomaviruses

Abstract

Over recent years, a growing number of papillomaviruses have been identified, which cause a wide range of lesions in domestic and wild animals. Papillomavirus-induced lesions may have a great impact on animal health, and some diseases observed in farm animals are associated with significant economic losses. This concise review brings together recent advancements on animal papillomavirus research, providing the scientific community and veterinary practitioners with an update on this rapidly evolving field. Among others, bovine, canine and feline papillomaviruses (BPV, CPV and FcaPV) are most extensively discussed, in view of the recent discovery of new viral types and their worldwide importance for animal health. Feline papillomaviruses 2 is an emerging, highly prevalent pathogen in domestic cats, associated with a subset of malignant skin lesions. Aspects related to cross-species infection by BPV and its environmental co-factors are also addressed. Animal papillomaviruses are also fascinating models for studying molecular and cell biology and have recently inspired some major breakthroughs. Overall, it is clear that additional, international and systematic efforts are needed to clarify which lesions are caused by which viral types and to develop experimental models for studying animal papillomavirus.

Sea turtle fibropapilloma tumors share genomic drivers and therapeutic vulnerabilities with human cancers

“…The etiology of fibropapillomatosis is not fully understood, but the disease has a combination of viral and environmental cofactors 5 . A large number of oncogenic viruses have been reported in terrestrial and aquatic wildlife and domestic animals 14,15 . Meanwhile, in humans, the number of cancer incidences identified as attributable to pathogens has tripled in only 4 years 16,17 , now accounting for 15% of all human cancers.…”

The Detection and Association of Canine Papillomavirus with Benign and Malignant Skin Lesions in Dogs

“…The PVs have been claimed to be the causative agent of several types of malignant neoplasms in both human and veterinary medicine [3,6,12]. As for the canine PVs, CPV 1, 2, 3, 7, 12, 16, and 17 have been speculated to cause malignant transformation of the epithelium [1,28]. The association of viral antigens or genome with malignant lesions has also been demonstrated in CPV 1-, 2-, 12-, and 16-infected animals [26,27,29,33].…”

“…Papillomavirus (PV) can infect and propagate in the cutaneous and mucosal epithelial cells of a wide variety of animal species with a high species specificity [1][2][3]. Although three bovine papillomaviruses (BPV 1, BPV 2, and BPV 13) have been demonstrated to cross-infect the cutaneous fibroblastic cells in equines [4,5], the majority of PVs only infect the epithelium and cause associated lesions [3,6].…”

“…In human medicine, human papillomavirus (HPV) types 16 and 18 are the most prevalent causative agents of the cervical cancer, as well as head and neck tumors [9]. In veterinary medicine, the bovine papillomavirus (BPV) types 1, 2, 4, and 13, and feline papillomavirus (FcaPV) types 2 and 3 have recently been demonstrated to be highly correlated to malignant neoplasms, such as squamous cell carcinoma (SCC), bowenoid in situ carcinoma (BISC) and transitional cell carcinoma [1,10,11].…”

“…Although some of the studies support that CPV 1 is unable to transform the cells, a recently published case report demonstrated that CPV 1 is highly associated with oral SCC [26,27]. Apart from CPV 1, the malignant transformations had been reported in CPV 2-, 3-, 7-, 12-, 16-, and 17-associated lesions [1,28,29]. Severe CPV 2 infection is considered to lead metastatic SCC in immunosuppressed dogs [30].…”