Discovery of a Bovine Enterovirus in Alpaca

Abstract

A cytopathic virus was isolated using Madin-Darby bovine kidney (MDBK) cells from lung tissue of alpaca that died of a severe respiratory infection. To identify the virus, the infected cell culture supernatant was enriched for virus particles and a generic, PCR-based method was used to amplify potential viral sequences. Genomic sequence data of the alpaca isolate was obtained and compared with sequences of known viruses. The new alpaca virus sequence was most similar to recently designated Enterovirus species F, previously bovine enterovirus (BEVs), viruses that are globally prevalent in cattle, although they appear not to cause significant disease. Because bovine enteroviruses have not been previously reported in U.S. alpaca, we suspect that this type of infection is fairly rare, and in this case appeared not to spread beyond the original outbreak. The capsid sequence of the detected virus had greatest homology to Enterovirus F type 1 (indicating that the virus should be considered a member of serotype 1), but the virus had greater homology in 2A protease sequence to type 3, suggesting that it may have been a recombinant. Identifying pathogens that infect a new host species for the first time can be challenging. As the disease in a new host species may be quite different from that in the original or natural host, the pathogen may not be suspected based on the clinical presentation, delaying diagnosis. Although this virus replicated in MDBK cells, existing standard culture and molecular methods could not identify it. In this case, a highly sensitive generic PCR-based pathogen-detection method was used to identify this pathogen.

Enteric Viruses as Contaminants and Bioindicators in Environmental Samples: A Review

“…As these viruses are transmitted by fecal-oral route, it seemed reasonable to hypothesize that if enterovirus F could be found in the environment, it could serve as an indicator for the presence of feces derived from cattle farms. Recently, a molecular characterization of an enterovirus was described during an outbreak of respiratory infection in alpaca (McClenahan et al 2013).…”

Advies over de geschiktheid van de alpaca als productiedier

“…In de literatuur zijn diverse virale infecties bij alpaca's gerapporteerd (McClenahan et al 2013 Alpaca's verschillen in fysiologie van schapen en andere landbouwhuisdieren. Onder andere zijn de rode bloedcellen ovaal en verschillen in grootte en vorm.…”

Identification of a novel bovine enterovirus possessing highly divergent amino acid sequences in capsid protein

“…Since the isolation of BEVs from cattle in the late 1950s [6–8], studies worldwide have detected BEVs not only in cattle but also in other animal species including possums, bottlenose dolphins, camels and alpacas [8–12]. Although BEVs have been classified based on virus antigenicity determined by cross neutralization testing [13–16], the genotype based on the capsid protein (particularly in VP1) amino acid sequences are also used to classify BEVs [4, 10–12, 17, 18]. BEVs are classified into 4 sero-/genotypes and 6 sero-/genotypes in EV-E (E1, E2, E3 and E4) and EV-F (F1, F2, F3, F4, F5 and F6), respectively.…”