Buffalopox Virus: An Emerging Virus in Livestock and Humans

Abstract

Buffalopox virus (BPXV) is the cause of buffalopox, which was recognized by the FAO/WHO Joint Expert Committee on Zoonosis as an important zoonotic disease. Buffalopox was first described in India, later in other countries, and has become an emerging contagious viral zoonotic disease infecting milkers with high morbidity among affected domestic buffalo and cattle. BPXV is a member of the genus Orthopoxvirus and a close variant of the vaccinia virus (VACV). Recent genome data show that BPXV shares a most recent common ancestor of VACV Lister strain, which had been used for inoculating buffalo calves to produce a Smallpox vaccine. Over time, VACV evolved into BPXV by establishing itself in buffaloes to be increasingly pathogenic to this host and to make infections in cattle and humans. Together with the current pandemic of SARS-COV2/COVID 19, BPXV infections illustrate how vulnerable the human population is to the emergence and re-emergence of viral pathogens from unsuspected sources. In view that majority of the world population are not vaccinated against smallpox and are most vulnerable in the event of its re-emergence, reviewing and understanding the biology of vaccinia-like viruses are necessary for developing a new generation of safer smallpox vaccines in the smallpox-free world.

Here, There, and Everywhere: The Wide Host Range and Geographic Distribution of Zoonotic Orthopoxviruses

“…BPXV resembles VACV in terms of its properties (size, shape, structure, and physicochemical properties) [ 156 ], pathogenesis, and pathology. Phylogenetic analyses confirmed the monophyly of the BPXV and its likely origin from the VACV Lister vaccine [ 155 , 156 , 157 , 158 , 159 ]. Since its first description, outbreaks of BPXV have been reported in India, Pakistan, Nepal, Egypt, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Russia, and Italy [ 15 , 43 , 53 , 160 , 161 , 162 ].…”

Virological and molecular investigation on specimens from buffaloes suspected to be infected by buffalopox virus in Egypt 2019

“…Buffalo pox infection was first recorded in India in 1934. Since then, several outbreaks have occurred in different countries, including Pakistan, Nepal, Iran, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Egypt, Russia and Italy (Essbaurer et al, 2010; Eltom et al, 2020). The causative agent of the disease was not identified until 1977, when it was isolated and characterized by Singh andSingh in 1967 (Anand andButchaiah, 2004;Borisevich et al, 2016).…”

“…Clinical examination and specimen collection from infected animals is the first step in BPXV infection diagnosis. Samples are examined under electron microscopy, and the virus is isolated from lesion scabs by inoculation on ECE and cell culture lines, plaque assay and neutralization test, using PCR and Partial genome sequencing (Eltom et al, 2020).…”

“…BPXV could be propagated in a wide range of cell cultures as chick embryo fibroblast (CEF), pup kidney cells, Vero cells and Baby hamster kidney cells (BHK); showing a cytopathic effect (CPE) (Eltom et al, 2020). Scab samples were collected from infected buffaloes and then prepared and passaged on the BHK-21 and Vero cells to isolate the BPX virus (Goraya et al, 2015;Yadav et al, 2010).…”

“…The BPXV C18L gene encodes the ankyrin repeat protein that determines the virus host range (Borisevich et al, 2016). Primers for the C18l gene amplify a 368 bp PCR product unique for BPXV (Eltom et al, 2020).…”