Hepatitis E is a viral zoonosis that affects multiple hosts. The complete dynamics of infection in wildlife are still unknown, but the previous fact facilitates the maintenance and circulation of the virus, posing a risk to human health in the case of meat consumption from susceptible animals. In Spain, it has been shown how domestic pigs, cattle and wildlife (i.e. wild boar and red deer) clearly interact in hunting farms, generating a complex epidemiological situation in terms of interspecies pathogen transmission. Therefore, in this study, we aimed to (i) evaluate the circulation of the virus in geographically close domestic (Iberian pigs) and wild animals (wild boar and deer) living in hunting areas from central Spain over an 8-year period (2003-2010) and (ii) to determine whether HEV could be used as a marker of domestic-wildlife contact. For these purposes, a longitudinal analysis of Iberian pig, wild boar and red deer samples (n = 287) through virological and serological tests was conducted to shed light upon the circulation events of HEV. Regarding HEV RNA detection by real-time RT-PCR, 10.12% samples (95% CI: 5.44-14.8) from wild boar and 16.05% samples (95% CI: 8.06-24.04) from red deer were positive. As for the Iberian pigs, none of the 48 samples was positive for HEV RNA detection. In the serological analysis, 43.75% (95% CI: 29.75-57.75) from Iberian pig, 57.40% (95% CI: 48.10-66.70) from wild boar and 12.85% (95% CI: 5.01-20.69) samples from red deer presented anti-HEV antibodies. Positive samples were distributed among all study years (2003-2010). These results depict the urgent need to improve the inspection and surveillance of these species and their products. In the case of HEV, it is clear that the stable and constant presence of the virus in wildlife and its contact with Iberian pigs pose a risk for human health as they are all destined for human consumption.
The situation in Europe concerning honeybees has in recent years become increasingly aggravated with steady decline in populations and/or catastrophic winter losses. This has largely been attributed to the occurrence of a variety of known and “unknown”, emerging novel diseases. Previous studies have demonstrated that colonies often can harbour more than one pathogen, making identification of etiological agents with classical methods difficult. By employing an unbiased metagenomic approach, which allows the detection of both unexpected and previously unknown infectious agents, the detection of three viruses, Aphid Lethal Paralysis Virus (ALPV), Israel Acute Paralysis Virus (IAPV), and Lake Sinai Virus (LSV), in honeybees from Spain is reported in this article. The existence of a subgroup of ALPV with the ability to infect bees was only recently reported and this is the first identification of such a strain in Europe. Similarly, LSV appear to be a still unclassified group of viruses with unclear impact on colony health and these viruses have not previously been identified outside of the United States. Furthermore, our study also reveals that these bees carried a plant virus, Turnip Ringspot Virus (TuRSV), potentially serving as important vector organisms. Taken together, these results demonstrate the new possibilities opened up by high-throughput sequencing and metagenomic analysis to study emerging new diseases in domestic and wild animal populations, including honeybees.
BackgroundBovine viral diarrhea virus (BVDV) is a pestivirus that affects cattle production worldwide and that can infect other ungulates such as cervids and even wild boar (Sus scrofa). It is believed that domestic livestock can become infected through contact with wild animals, though it is known that infection can spread among wild animals in the absence of contact with livestock. Little is known about the sharing of BVDV infection between wild and domestic animals in the same habitat, which is important for designing eradication campaigns and preventing outbreaks, especially on hunting estates with high animal densities.ResultsWe assessed the sharing of BVDV infections among hunted red deer, wild boar and cattle in south-central Spain. Sampled red deer (Cervus elaphus; n = 267) and wild boar (n = 52) were located on 19 hunting estates, and cattle (n = 180) were located on 18 nearby farms. We used ELISA kits for the serological screening, Taqman RT-PCR assay for the virus determination, and subsequent phylogenetic analysis for 17 RT-PCR positive sample amplicons. Fifty-two red deer (19.5 %) and 82 cattle (45.6 %) samples tested positive by ELISA. A high apparent prevalence (22.47 %) was obtained for red deer, while only five cattle farms tested positive by RT-PCR. Conversely, no wild boar tested positive by both ELISA or RT-PCR. Eleven red deer (4.1 %) tested positive by both ELISA and RT-PCR; these animals may have been sampled during the last phase of viremia, or they may represent previously exposed individuals infected by a different BVDV strain. The amplicons shared 92.7–100 % identity and fell within the BVDV subgroup 1b, although nine of these (from four red deer and five cattle pools) formed a separate branch. This suggests that there might be a common BVDV infecting both cattle and red deer. Higher red deer abundance was significantly associated with greater risk that extensively raised cattle would test positive for BVDV by ELISA.ConclusionsOur findings suggest that BVDV is circulating between cattle and red deer populations in proximity, but further work is required to determine whether they share the same strain(s). These results suggest the potential of BVDV to serve as a surveillance marker in these shared habitats. High seroprevalence of BVDV in red deer from our study area suggests that although BVDV infection is common, animals usually survive the infection. Further research is needed to verify and investigate the role of red deer as a BVDV reservoir.
Several factors have recently converged, elevating the need for highly parallel diagnostic platforms that have the ability to detect many known, novel, and emerging pathogenic agents simultaneously. Panviral DNA microarrays represent the most robust approach for massively parallel viral surveillance and detection. The Virochip is a panviral DNA microarray that is capable of detecting all known viruses, as well as novel viruses related to known viral families, in a single assay and has been used to successfully identify known and novel viral agents in clinical human specimens. However, the usefulness and the sensitivity of the Virochip platform have not been tested on a set of clinical veterinary specimens with the high degree of genetic variance that is frequently observed with swine virus field isolates.
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