Vesicular Stomatitis

Abstract

Vesicular stomatitis is a disease of livestock caused by some members of the Vesiculovirus genus (Family Rhabdoviridae), two of which are called 'vesicular stomatitis virus'. Clinical disease presents as severe vesiculation and/or ulceration of the tongue, oral tissues, feet, and teats, and results in substantial loss of productivity. Except for its appearance in horses, it is clinically indistinguishable from foot-and-mouth disease. Unlike foot-and-mouth disease, it is very infectious for man and can cause a temporarily debilitating disease. Vesicular stomatitis occurs seasonally every year in the southeastern USA, southern Mexico, throughout Central America and in northern South America, and emerges from tropical areas to cause sporadic epidemics in cooler climates during the summer months. Other Vesiculoviruses are endemic in India and Africa. Vesiculoviruses are arthropod-borne and it is possible they are actually well adapted insect viruses that incidentally infect mammals. Vesiculoviruses are relatively simple, having a linear, single stranded, negative sense RNA genome encased in a bullet-shaped virion made from only five proteins. Upon infection of cultured cells, viral products turn off cellular gene expression and seize the entire metabolic potential of the cell. They also depolymerize the cytoskeleton to cause rapid tissue destruction. Virus infection in animals provokes interferon and nitric oxide responses, which quickly control viral replication, and an antibody response that prevents further viral replication. Vesiculovirus genome replication is error-prone, resulting in viral progeny containing many variants. This allows rapid adaptation. Nevertheless, vesicular stomatitis virus genomic sequences appear relatively stable within single endemic areas, and vary progressively on a North-South axis in the Western Hemisphere. Numerous important fundamental discoveries in immunology and virology have come from recent studies of vesicular stomatitis virus. However, these discoveries have not led to a safe and fully effective vaccine for man or beast. In the absence of a vaccine, the continual increase in rapid intercontinental travel, the increase in numbers and concentration of susceptible animals, the plasticity of the viral genome, and the underappreciation of vesiculoviruses as veterinary and zoonotic pathogens by regulators and biomedical researchers, are combining with potentially explosive consequences.

Experimental Infection of Didelphis Marsupialis With Vesicular Stomatitis New Jersey Virus

“…The apparent incubation time of VSV in opossums experimentally infected through the routes used in this study was 48 hr, which is similar to the time described for cattle experimentally infected with VSNJV and VSIV (Mason, 1978;Yuill, 1981;Arbelá ez and Rocha, 1984;Letchworth et al, 1999;Schmitt, 2002). The clinical signs, and the extension and kinetics of lesions observed in experimentally infected opossums, were similar to the ones described for bovine, equine, and porcine subjects when these were experimentally inoculated (Howerth et al, 2006).…”

“…This disease primarily affects domestic cattle, horses, and swine, but also has been observed infrequently in camelids, sheep, goats, and some wildlife species; humans can also become infected, producing an acute, febrile, influenza-like illness (Thorne et al, 1983;Letchworth et al, 1999;McCluskey and Mumford, 2000).…”

Equid Herpesvirus 2-Associated Oral and Esophageal Ulceration in a Foal

“…Typically, almost 50% of horses in an outbreak are affected. 11,12 Stomatitis was also reported as one of several clinical findings in an outbreak of EVA in Spain 14 ; but the seronegative status of the horse herd made this an unlikely cause in the present case. Jamestown Canyon virus, an isolate of California encephalitis virus, was isolated from vesicular lesions from the coronary band, tongue, and buccal mucosa from a horse that presented with anorexia and weight loss.…”

On the possible role of robustness in the evolution of infectious diseases

“…27 Vesicular stomatitis virus ͑VSV͒ is an ssRNA virus that is vector-transmitted by some insects and causes disease in certain mammal species. 28,29 Two diverged populations of VSV were characterized for reproductive growth on tissue culture cells, and for within-population variance among clones for this phenotype; this effort revealed that one population was slow-growing but relatively less variable in clone phenotypes ͑robust͒ and the other had the opposite characteristics ͑brittle͒. 27 Whereas standard growth conditions allowed the faster replicating brittle virus population to outcompete the slower replicating robust population, exposure to either of two mutagens favored the robust variant.…”