Nachweis und Charakterisierung von Schlangenarenaviren bei lebenden Boas und Pythons in einem deutschen Zoo

Aqrawi, Tara; Stöhr, Anke C.; Knauf-Witzens, Tobias; Krengel, A.; Heckers, Kim O.; Marschang, Rachel E.

doi:10.15654/tpk-140743

Cited by 29 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 13 publications

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“…The overall prevalence of IBD and/or reptarenavirus infection in the present study was 19.2% with a remarkably high prevalence of IBD in boa constrictors (34.0%). Although, a proportionally larger number of boid species other than boa constrictors and pythonids tested reptarenavirus positive in previous screening studies [1,21,24,25], the number of positive snakes that were detected in these studies largely complies to our results. It should be noted, however, that these studies focused on a smaller number of snakes belonging to a single (zoological) collection [21,24,25] or a more limited number of snake collections [1].…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 90%

“…Although immunocompromised snakes may be more susceptible to reptarenavirus infection, the development of comorbidities as observed in this study may also be facilitated by the immunosuppression resulting from arenavirus infection as previously described in other animals with arenavirus infection [26] and recently in reptarenavirus infected boa constrictors [21]. As previously reported [1,24,25], it should be noted that many boa constrictors showed subclinical infections at the moment of sampling and although long-term follow-up was based on a sampling of a limited number of collections, our findings indicate that it may take several years before infection becomes clinical in IBD + or reptarenavirus infected snakes. A recent study confirmed that pythons rapidly develop CNS disease following experimental inoculation with a reptarenavirus [5].…”

Section: Plos Onesupporting

confidence: 79%

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Prevalence of inclusion body disease and associated comorbidity in captive collections of boid and pythonid snakes in Belgium

et al. 2020

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Inclusion body disease (IBD) is caused by reptarenaviruses and constitutes one of the most notorious viral diseases in snakes. Although central nervous system disease and various other clinical signs have been attributed to IBD in boid and pythonid snakes, studies that unambiguously reveal the clinical course of natural IBD and reptarenavirus infection are scarce. In the present study, the prevalence of IBD and reptarenaviruses in captive snake collections and the correlation of IBD and reptarenavirus infection with the clinical status of the sampled snakes were investigated. In three IBD positive collections, long-term follow-up during a three-to seven-year period was performed. A total of 292 snakes (178 boas and 114 pythons) from 40 collections in Belgium were sampled. In each snake, blood and buffy coat smears were evaluated for the presence of IBD inclusion bodies (IB) and whole blood was tested for reptarenavirus RNA by RT-PCR. Of all tested snakes, 16.5% (48/292) were positive for IBD of which all were boa constrictors (34.0%; 48/141) and 17.1% (50/292) were reptarenavirus RT-PCR positive. The presence of IB could not be demonstrated in any of the tested pythons, while 5.3% (6/114) were reptarenavirus positive. In contrast to pythons, the presence of IB in peripheral blood cells in boa constrictors is strongly correlated with reptarenavirus detection by RT-PCR (P<0.0001). Although boa constrictors often show persistent subclinical infection, long-term follow-up indicated that a considerable number (22.2%; 6/27) of IBD/reptarenavirus positive boas eventually develop IBD associated comorbidities.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 90%

Section: Plos Onesupporting

confidence: 79%

Prevalence of inclusion body disease and associated comorbidity in captive collections of boid and pythonid snakes in Belgium

et al. 2020

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“…Moreover, we have documented vertical transmission of reptarenaviruses and hartmaniviruses in boas, and the swarm of reptarenavirus genome segments transmitted can vary between the offspring [23]. The origins and reservoir hosts of both reptarenaviruses and hartmaniviruses remain unknown, as the viruses have only been found in captive snakes [13,15,17,24,25].Arenaviruses have a negative-sense bi-segmented RNA genome, with the exception of members of the most recently recognized arenavirus genus, Antennavirus, identified in fish, which have a tri-segmented genome [19]. The large (L) genome segment encodes the RNA-dependent-RNApolymerase (RdRp) and the matrix-like Z protein (ZP) [26,27], but hartmaniviruses lack the ZP [22].…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Differences in Tissue and Species Tropism of Reptarenavirus Species Studied by Vesicular Stomatitis Virus Pseudotypes

Korzyukov

Iheozor-Ejiofor

Levanov

et al. 2020

Viruses

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Reptarenaviruses cause Boid Inclusion Body Disease (BIBD), and co-infections by several reptarenaviruses are common in affected snakes. Reptarenaviruses have only been found in captive snakes, and their reservoir hosts remain unknown. In affected animals, reptarenaviruses appear to replicate in most cell types, but their complete host range, as well as tissue and cell tropism are unknown. As with other enveloped viruses, the glycoproteins (GPs) present on the virion's surface mediate reptarenavirus cell entry, and therefore, the GPs play a critical role in the virus cell and tissue tropism. Herein, we employed single cycle replication, GP deficient, recombinant vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV) expressing the enhanced green fluorescent protein (scrVSV∆G-eGFP) pseudotyped with different reptarenavirus GPs to study the virus cell tropism. We found that scrVSV∆G-eGFPs pseudotyped with reptarenavirus GPs readily entered mammalian cell lines, and some mammalian cell lines exhibited higher, compared to snake cell lines, susceptibility to reptarenavirus GP-mediated infection. Mammarenavirus GPs used as controls also mediated efficient entry into several snake cell lines. Our results confirm an important role of the virus surface GP in reptarenavirus cell tropism and that mamma-and reptarenaviruses exhibit high cross-species transmission potential.Viruses 2020, 12, 395 2 of 16 Boid Inclusion Body Disease (BIBD), initially recognized in the 1970s, affects mainly captive boas and pythons [11]. BIBD is characterized by the formation of electron dense intracytoplasmic inclusion bodies (IB) [12] in various cell types (including blood cells) and tissues [13][14][15]. BIBD spreads efficiently within collections, and the recommendation to euthanize snakes with BIBD can lead to loss of entire collections [11]. Clinical manifestations of BIBD are variable and include central nervous system (CNS) signs such as head tremors, loss of coordination, and regurgitation [11]. Death due to secondary bacterial, fungal or protozoal infections and neoplastic diseases is common in snakes with BIBD [16], suggesting that BIBD might be associated with an impaired immune response.The causative agent for BIBD remained unknown until the early 2010s, when novel arenaviruses were identified in snakes with BIBD [13,15,17], which extended arenaviruses host range to species other than the well-established rodent reservoirs [1-3]. These findings led to establishment of two genera, Mammarenavirus and Reptarenavirus, within the family Arenaviridae [18,19]. We and others have documented that snakes with BIBD are often co-infected with several reptarenaviruses [20,21], and we discovered another novel arenavirus in snakes, Haartman Institute Snake virus-1 (HISV-1) [20], which later became the type species of a third arenavirus genus, Hartmanivirus [19,22]. The finding that IBs contain reptarenavirus NP further supported the link between reptarenavirus infection and BIBD [15]. Experimental infection of boas and pythons with purified reptarenaviruses provided une...

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“…That these regions of conservation appear in such diverse targets suggests that it should be possible for design primers that could be used to amplify products from diverse sources as well as from current arenaviruses species by RT-PCR. In fact, RT-PCR was used for identify some species of mammarenavirus (Vieth et al, 2007) and reptarenavirus (Aqrawi et al, 2015). This could provide a diagnostic for the presence of the agents from which the TSA sequences were derived and also find other, related, virus sequences (Lozano et al, 1997;Vieth et al, 2005).…”

Section: Homology Detection and Structure Prediction Of Identified Prmentioning

confidence: 99%

Bioinformatics analysis for L polymerase homology of arenaviruses

Alrashedi

Jones

Mulley

et al. 2017

Preprint

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Nachweis und Charakterisierung von Schlangenarenaviren bei lebenden Boas und Pythons in einem deutschen Zoo

Cited by 29 publications

References 13 publications

Prevalence of inclusion body disease and associated comorbidity in captive collections of boid and pythonid snakes in Belgium

Prevalence of inclusion body disease and associated comorbidity in captive collections of boid and pythonid snakes in Belgium

Differences in Tissue and Species Tropism of Reptarenavirus Species Studied by Vesicular Stomatitis Virus Pseudotypes

Bioinformatics analysis for L polymerase homology of arenaviruses

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