Characterization of Fort Morgan Virus, an Alphavirus of the Western Equine Encephalitis Virus Complex in an Unusual Ecosystem

Calisher, C. H.; Monath, Thomas P.; Muth, D J; Lazuick, John S.; Trent, Dennis W.; Francy, D. B.; Kemp, Graham E.; Chandler, Francis W.

doi:10.4269/ajtmh.1980.29.1428

Cited by 41 publications

(36 citation statements)

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“…BCR virus was ¢rst isolated in the early 1980s from swallow bugs collected at a cli¡ swallow colony along Buggy Creek in Grady County, west central Oklahoma (Loye & Hopla 1983;Hopla et al 1993). BCR virus is very similar to another alphavirus, Fort Morgan virus (FM), which is also associated with cli¡ swallows and swallow bugs (Hayes et al 1977;Calisher et al 1980;Scott et al 1984). BCR virus and FM virus are 4 96% identical at the nucleotide level and 4 98% identical at the amino acid level over the entire structural protein coding region (M. Pfe¡er and R. Kinney, unpublished data) and, thus, both are probably strains of the same alphavirus.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Arbovirus infection increases with group size

Brown

Komar

Quick

et al. 2001

Proc. R. Soc. Lond. B

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Buggy Creek (BCR) virus is an arthropod-borne alphavirus that is naturally transmitted to its vertebrate host the cli¡ swallow (Petrochelidon pyrrhonota) by an invertebrate vector, namely the cimicid swallow bug (Oeciacus vicarius). We examined how the prevalence of the virus varied with the group size of both its vector and host. The study was conducted in southwestern Nebraska where cli¡ swallows breed in colonies ranging from one to 3700 nests and the bug populations at a site vary directly with the cli¡ swallow colony size. The percentage of cli¡ swallow nests containing bugs infected with BCR virus increased signi¢cantly with colony size at a site in the current year and at the site in the previous year. This result could not be explained by di¡erences in the bug sampling methods, date of sampling, sample size of the bugs, age structure of the bugs or the presence of an alternate host, the house sparrow (Passer domesticus). Colony sites that were reused by cli¡ swallows showed a positive autocorrelation in the percentage of nests with infected bugs between year t and year t + 1, but the spatial autocorrelation broke down for year t + 2. The increased prevalence of BCR virus at larger cli¡ swallow colonies probably re£ects the larger bug populations there, which are less likely to decline in size and lead to virus extinction. To the authors' knowledge this is the ¢rst demonstration of arbovirus infection increasing with group size and one of the few known predictive ecological relationships between an arbovirus and its vectors/hosts. The results have implications for both understanding the ¢tness consequences of coloniality for cli¡ swallows and understanding the temporal and spatial variation in arboviral epidemics.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Arbovirus infection increases with group size

Brown

Komar

Quick

et al. 2001

Proc. R. Soc. Lond. B

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“…Because the wingless swallow bugs are sedentary and confined to active and inactive cliff swallow nests during most of the year (5,21), the spatial foci for virus occurrence are predictable and allow the study of how genetic divergence of BCRV potentially varies from site to site over relatively small spatial scales without making assumptions as to the vectors' geographic origin. There is a close antigenic relationship between BCRV and the other WEEV complex alphaviruses (8,9,14,17) that have medical and veterinary significance, and consequently, the study of how BCRV may undergo spatial structuring and evolutionary change may provide important information on this virus group that could not be obtained in studies where volant arthropods (e.g., mosquitoes) are the primary vectors.…”

mentioning

confidence: 98%

“…Like other members of the WEEV complex, BCRV is a natural recombinant virus derived from Old World SINV and New World eastern equine encephalomyelitis (EEEV) (29,41). BCRV (and the closely related FMV) is apparently widely distributed in North America, having been found in Texas, Oklahoma, Nebraska, Colorado, South Dakota, and Washington state (7,8,17). It was first isolated in 1980 at Buggy Creek in Grady County, Oklahoma (17,22), although the ecologically very similar FMV was discovered in the 1970s in Colorado (8,14).…”

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confidence: 99%

Phylogenetic Analysis of Buggy Creek Virus: Evidence for Multiple Clades in the Western Great Plains, United States of America

Pfeffer

Foster

Edwards

et al. 2006

Appl Environ Microbiol

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We present the first detailed phylogenetic analysis of Buggy Creek virus (BCRV), a poorly known alphavirus with transmission cycles involving a cimicid swallow bug (Oeciacus vicarius) vector and cliff swallows (Petrochelidon pyrrhonota) and house sparrows (Passer domesticus) as the principal avian hosts. Nucleotide sequences of a 2,075-bp viral envelope glycoprotein-coding region, covering the entire PE2 gene, were determined for 33 BCRV isolates taken from swallow bugs at cliff swallow colonies in Nebraska and Colorado in the summer of 2001 and were compared with the corresponding region of BCRV isolates collected from Oklahoma in the 1980s. We also analyzed isolates of the closely related Fort Morgan virus (FMV) collected from Colorado in the 1970s. Phylogenetic analysis indicated that BCRV falls into the western equine encephalomyelitis complex of alphaviruses, in agreement with antigenic results and a previous alphavirus phylogeny based on the E1 coding region. We found four distinct BCRV/FMV clades, one each unique to Nebraska, Colorado, and Oklahoma and one containing isolates from both Nebraska and Colorado. BCRV isolates within the two clades from Nebraska showed 5.7 to 6.2% nucleotide divergence and 0.7 to 1.9% amino acid divergence, and within these clades, we found multiple subclades. Nebraska subclades tended to be confined to one or a few cliff swallow colonies that were close to each other in space, although in some cases, near-identical isolates were detected at sites up to 123 km apart. Viral gene flow occurs when cliff swallows move (bugs) between colony sites, and the genetic structure of BCRV may reflect the limited dispersal abilities of its insect vector.

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“…Fort Morgan virus (Calisher et al, 1980), also found in swallow bugs, is a strain of BCRV (Pfeffer et al, 2006;Padhi et al, 2008); thus, FMV and BCRV are synonymous. Stone Lakes virus, recently isolated from California, is probably also a strain of BCRV (Brault et al, 2009).…”

Section: Study Organismsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Seasonal Variation and Age-Related Correlates of Buggy Creek Virus (Togaviridae) Infection in Nestling House Sparrows

O’Brien

Brown

2012

Journal of Wildlife Diseases

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ABSTRACT:Wild birds are rarely found with active arbovirus infections, and relatively little is known about the patterns of viremia they exhibit under field conditions or how infection varies with date, bird age, or other factors that potentially affect transmission dynamics. Buggy Creek virus (BCRV; Togaviridae, Alphavirus) is an arbovirus associated with colonially nesting Cliff Swallows (Petrochelidon pyrrhonota) and transmitted by its vector, the hematophagous swallow bug (Oeciacus vicarius), an ectoparasite of the Cliff Swallow. Introduced House Sparrows (Passer domesticus) that have occupied swallow nests at colony sites in peridomestic settings are also exposed to BCRV when fed upon by swallow bugs. We used data from 882 nestling House Sparrows in western Nebraska from 2006 to 2008 to examine seasonal variation and age-related correlates of virus infection in the field. Over 17% of nestling House Sparrows had active infections. Prevalence was higher in 2007 than in 2008 when birds from all colony sites were analyzed, but there was no significant difference between years for sites sampled in both seasons. Buggy Creek virus prevalence was similar in early and late summer, with a peak in midsummer, coinciding with the greatest swallow bug abundance. Nestlings 10 days of age and younger were most commonly infected, and the likelihood of BCRV infection declined for older nestlings. Average viremia titers also declined with age (but did not vary with date) and were high enough at all nestling ages to likely infect blood-feeding arthropods (swallow bugs). Length of viremia for nestlings in the field was $4 days, in agreement with an earlier study of BCRV. Nestling birds offer many advantages for field studies of arbovirus amplification and transmission.

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Characterization of Fort Morgan Virus, an Alphavirus of the Western Equine Encephalitis Virus Complex in an Unusual Ecosystem

Cited by 41 publications

References 0 publications

Arbovirus infection increases with group size

Arbovirus infection increases with group size

Phylogenetic Analysis of Buggy Creek Virus: Evidence for Multiple Clades in the Western Great Plains, United States of America

Seasonal Variation and Age-Related Correlates of Buggy Creek Virus (Togaviridae) Infection in Nestling House Sparrows

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