In 2011, an unidentified disease in cattle was reported in Germany and the Netherlands. Clinical signs included fever, decreased milk production, and diarrhea. Metagenomic analysis identified a novel orthobunyavirus, which subsequently was isolated from blood of affected animals. Surveillance was initiated to test malformed newborn animals in the affected region.

Schmallenberg virus (SBV), an orthobunyavirus of the Simbu serogroup, recently emerged in Europe and has been suggested to be a Shamonda/Sathuperi virus reassortant. Results of full-genome and serologic investigations indicate that SBV belongs to the species Sathuperi virus and is a possible ancestor of the reassortant Shamonda virus.

Was the 1993/1994 fatal canine distemper virus (CDV) epidemic in lions and spotted hyaenas in the Serengeti ecosystem caused by the recent spillover of a virulent domestic dog strain or one well adapted to these noncanids? We examine this question using sequence data from 13 'Serengeti' strains including five complete genomes obtained between 1993 and 2011. Phylogenetic and haplotype network analyses reveal that strains from noncanids during the epidemic were more closely related to each other than to those from domestic or wild canids. All noncanid 'Serengeti' strains during the epidemic encoded: (1) one novel substitution G134S in the CDV-V protein; and (2) the rare amino acid combination 519I/549H at two sites under positive selection in the region of the CDV-H protein that binds to SLAM (CD 150) host cell receptors. Worldwide, only a few noncanid strains in the America II lineage encode CDV-H 519I/549H. All canid 'Serengeti' strains during the epidemic coded CDV-V 134G, and CDV-H 519R/549Y, or 519R/549H. A functional assay of cell entry revealed the highest performance by CDV-H proteins encoding 519I/549H in cells expressing lion SLAM receptors, and the highest performance by proteins encoding 519R/549Y, typical of dog strains worldwide, in cells expressing dog SLAM receptors. Our findings are consistent with an epidemic in lions and hyaenas caused by CDV variants better adapted to noncanids than canids, but not with the recent spillover of a dog strain. Our study reveals a greater complexity of CDV molecular epidemiology in multihost environments than previously thought.

The incidence of human cowpox virus (CPXV) infections has increased significantly in recent years. Serological surveys have suggested wild rodents as the main CPXV reservoir. We characterized a CPXV isolated during a large-scale screening from a feral common vole. A comparison of the full-length DNA sequence of this CPXV strain with a highly virulent pet rat CPXV isolate showed a sequence identity of 96%, including a large additional open reading frame (ORF) of about 6,000 nucleotides which is absent in the reference CPXV strain Brighton Red. Electron microscopy analysis demonstrated that the vole isolate, in contrast to the rat strain, forms A-type inclusion (ATI) bodies with incorporated virions, consistent with the presence of complete ati and p4c genes. Experimental infections showed that the vole CPXV strain caused only mild clinical symptoms in its natural host, while all rats developed severe respiratory symptoms followed by a systemic rash. In contrast, common voles infected with a high dose of the rat CPXV showed severe signs of respiratory disease but no skin lesions, whereas infection with a low dose led to virus excretion with only mild clinical signs. We concluded that the common vole is susceptible to infection with different CPXV strains. The spectrum ranges from well-adapted viruses causing limited clinical symptoms to highly virulent strains causing severe respiratory symptoms. In addition, the low pathogenicity of the vole isolate in its eponymous host suggests a role of common voles as a major CPXV reservoir, and future research will focus on the correlation between viral genotype and phenotype/ pathotype in accidental and reservoir species. IMPORTANCEWe report on the first detection and isolation of CPXV from a putative reservoir host, which enables comparative analyses to understand the infection cycle of these zoonotic orthopox viruses and the relevant genes involved. In vitro studies, including whole-genome sequencing as well as in vivo experiments using the Wistar rat model and the vole reservoir host allowed us to establish links between genomic sequences and the in vivo properties (virulence) of the novel vole isolate in comparison to those of a recent zoonotic CPXV isolated from pet rats in 2009. Furthermore, the role of genes present only in a reservoir isolate can now be further analyzed. These studies therefore allow unique insights and conclusions about the role of the rodent reservoir in CPXV epidemiology and transmission and about the zoonotic threat that these viruses represent. C owpox virus (CPXV), a member of the genus Orthopoxvirus (OPV) in the Poxviridae family, is suspected to be widespread in Western Eurasian rodents, particularly vole species (1, 2). From the presumed reservoir hosts, spill-over infections to accidental hosts are regularly observed (3). The accidental hosts include domestic cats and also exotic animals in zoos, such as large felids and elephants, which regularly develop severe disease (3). As CPXV is a zoonotic virus, humans in direct contact wit...

In the autumn of 2011, Schmallenberg virus (SBV), a novel orthobunyavirus of the Simbu serogroup, was identified by metagenomic analysis in Germany. SBV has since been detected in ruminants all over Europe, and investigations on phylogenetic relationships, clinical signs and epidemiology have been conducted. However, until now, only comparative sequence analysis of SBV genome segments with other species of the Simbu serogroup have been performed, and detailed data on the S and M segments, relevant for virus-host-cell interaction, have been missing. In this study, we investigated the S-and M-segment sequences obtained from 24 SBVpositive field samples from sheep, cattle and a goat collected from all over Germany. The results obtained indicated that the overall genome variability of SBV is neither regionally nor host species dependent. Nevertheless, we characterized for the first time a region of high sequence variability (a mutation 'hot spot') within the glycoprotein Gc encoded by the M segment.In the autumn of 2011, a new disease was recognized in dairy cattle on a farm near the city of Schmallenberg (North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany). The animals suffered from diarrhoea, fever and a decrease in milk production. Metagenomic analyses conducted at the Friedrich-LoefflerInstitut, Germany, revealed a novel arthropod-borne orthobunyavirus (family Bunyaviridae) of the Simbu serogroup closely related to viruses of the species Sathuperi virus Yanase et al., 2012). The virus was named Schmallenberg virus (SBV) and was later also identified in foetuses of newborn sheep, cattle and goats that displayed congenital malformations and stillbirths (Bilk et al., 2012; reviewed by Beer et al., 2013;Conraths et al., 2013). Continuous investigations of field samples revealed that SBV has spread in Germany along a geographical west-east gradient, as well as in Europe (http://www.fli.bund.de/en/startseite/current-news/ animal-disease-situation/new-orthobunyavirus-detected-incattle-in-germany.html). Exposure to SBV in livestock and wildlife ruminants has been determined to be high . Since the first detection of SBV in 2011, many studies on the seroprevalence (Elbers et al., 2012;Garigliany et al., 2012b;Loeffen et al., 2012), clinical picture and pathology (Herder et al., 2012;Hoffmann et al., 2012;van den Brom et al., 2012), epidemiology Garigliany et al., 2012a) and vectors (de Regge et al., 2012; Rasmussen et al., 2012), and even studies on the nonzoonotic potential of SBV, have been published (Ducomble et al., 2012;Reusken et al., 2012). In addition, a few phylogenetic and comparative full-genome sequence analyses have been conducted using only the original SBV sample (BH80/11-4; Hoffmann et al., 2012) and other members of the Simbu serogroup Yanase et al., 2012). However, to our knowledge, the variability of SBV genomes collected in a regionally restricted area from different host species has not been investigated. Thus, our study concerning SBV genome variability in Germany represents a novel approach.Like all orthobunyavirus...

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Classical swine fever is a highly contagious disease that affects domestic and wild pigs worldwide. The causative agent of the disease is Classical swine fever virus (CSFV), which belongs to the genus Pestivirus within the family Flaviviridae. On the genome level, CSFV can be divided into three genotypes with three to four sub-genotypes. Those genotypes can be assigned to distinct geographical regions. Knowledge about CSFV diversity and distribution is important for the understanding of disease dynamics and evolution, and can thus help to design optimized control strategies. For this reason, the geographical pattern of CSFV diversity and distribution are outlined in the presented review. Moreover, current knowledge with regard to genetic virulence markers or determinants and the role of the quasispecies composition is discussed.