Cutaneous warts in butchers

Abstract

Several studies have indicated a high prevalence of hand warts in meat handlers, although the reasons for this are not clear. The high prevalence may be partly due to HPV7, a virus found almost exclusively in meat handlers, but the source of HPV7 is not known. We have carried out a cross-sectional survey of hand warts in male meat workers and controls from other occupational groups, to investigate the reasons for the high prevalence of warts, and particularly of HPV7, in butchers. We studied 240 abattoir workers, 246 retail and wholesale butchers, 308 engineering fitters and 292 office workers. Each subject was interviewed using a standard questionnaire, and his hands were examined by a dermatologist. Scrapings from the warts were tested for HPV1, HPV2 and HPV7 by a polymerase chain reaction method. The prevalence of hand warts was 33.3% in the abattoir workers, 34.1% in the butchers, 19.5% in the engineers and 14.7% in the office workers. Scrapings were taken from 247 of 267 subjects with warts, and HPV DNA was detected in 151 samples. The most common viruses were HPV2 (94 men) and HPV7 (76 men). The excess of warts in meat workers was largely due to HPV7, which was found in only two of the office workers, and was not found in any of the engineers. Logistic regression analysis showed no association between the prevalence of hand warts (or HPV2 and HPV7 specifically) and hand trauma, cold and wet working conditions, smoking, atopy, or handling any particular kind of meat. We suggest that some constituent of animal flesh predisposes to replication of HPV7 in keratinized epithelium.

Mucosal Human Papillomaviruses Encode Four Different E5 Proteins Whose Chemistry and Phylogeny Correlate with Malignant or Benign Growth

“…The E2-L2 segment sequences were retrieved either from the Los Alamos HPV Sequence Database (http://hpv-web.lanl.gov /stdgen/virus/hpv/) or from the public databases at EMBL. The E2-L2 sequences analyzed corresponded to the following viruses: HPV types 1, 2, 3,6,7,10,11,13,16,18,26,27,28,29,30,31,32,33,34,35,39,40,41,42,44,45,51,52,54,55,57,58,59,61,66,67,68,69,70,71,72,73,74AE10,77,83,84,86,87,89,90, and 91; common chimpanzee PV type 1; pigmy chimpanzee PV type 1; rhesus monkey PV; bovine PV types 1 and 2; reindeer PV; ovine PV (OPV) types 1 and 2;…”

“…Only 71 of the 119 sequences accomplished both criteria and were therefore named E5 proteins. These sequences belonged to HPV types 2, 3,6,7,10,11,13,16,18,26,27 Phylogenetic analysis. The initial alignments were generated with TCOFFEE, which combines information for both global and local homologies (35).…”

“…They are related to virtually all clinical cases of cervical cancer and are also involved in other benign and malignant proliferative disorders, such as skin warts, genital warts, laryngeal papillomas, and possibly non-melanoma skin cancer (21,25,26,32,43,56). Cladistic relationships between PVs have been described on the basis of their phylogeny (9, 22).…”

Clinical Manifestations of the Human Papillomavirus

“…In these cases, the lesions are clinically more exuberant and recalcitrant to treatment [3]. It is important to highlight a particular collective group composed of butchers and slaughterhouse workers who, without immunosuppression, have a higher risk compared to the general population [4,5]. This group has an increased incidence of the HPV7 subtype, and it is thought that some component of meat favors the replication of this viral subtype [6,7].…”

“…It is important to highlight a particular collective group composed of butchers and slaughterhouse workers who, without immunosuppression, have a higher risk compared to the general population [4,5]. This group has an increased incidence of the HPV7 subtype, and it is thought that some component of meat favors the replication of this viral subtype [6,7]. Although the clinic is generally sufficient for diagnosis, dermatoscopy is a useful tool that provides complementary information for cases involving clinical doubts.…”