Evidence of Ortho- And Paramyxoviruses in Fauna From Antarctica

Health Assessment of Weddell Seals, Leptonychotes weddellii, in McMurdo Sound, Antarctica

“…Recently, evidence of exposure to diseases generally associated with domestic animals and feral wildlife has been detected in Antarctic wildlife (Austin and Webster 1993;Olsen et al 1996;Gardner et al 1997;Retamal et al 2000;Foster et al 2002) and this has generated concern and debate regarding the risks of disease introduction to Antarctic wildlife. Antibodies to viruses that have caused large die-offs in phocids in other areas of the world have been detected in Weddell seals (Bengtson et al 1991), and there is a historical report of a mass die-off of crabeater seals that may have had a viral etiology (Laws and Taylor 1957).…”

Evidence for a New Avian Paramyxovirus Serotype 10 Detected in Rockhopper Penguins from the Falkland Islands

“…While AI virus has not yet been isolated from penguins in the sub-Antarctic and Antarctic areas, there have been two reports of serum antibodies positive to H7 and H10 from the Adélie species (11,40). Rare isolations of APMV1, both virulent (45) and of low virulence (8), have been reported from Antarctic penguins.…”

“…Sera positive for APMV1 and AMPV2 have also been reported (21,24,38,40,53). Since 1981, paramyxoviruses have been isolated from king penguins (Aptenodytes patagonicus), royal penguins (Eudyptes schlegeli), and Adélie penguins (Pygoscelis adeliae) from Antarctica and little blue penguins (Eudyptula minor) from Australia that cannot be identified as belonging to APMV1 to -9 and have not yet been classified (8,11,(38)(39)(40). The morphology, biological and genomic characteristics, and antigenic relatedness of an APMV recently isolated from multiple penguin colonies on the Falkland Islands are reported here.…”

Identification of an avian polyomavirus associated with Adélie penguins (Pygoscelis adeliae)

“…Most of the early studies have relied on serological assays for identifying putative paramyxoviruses, orthomyxoviruses, flavirviruses and birnaviruses in wild penguin populations (Alexander et al, 1989;Austin & Webster, 1993;Gardner et al, 1997;Miller et al, 2010;Morgan et al, , 1985Smith et al, 2008;Thomazelli et al, 2010) and herpesviruses and togaviruses in captive individuals (Kincaid et al, 1988;Tuttle et al, 2005). A handful of recent studies have identified some of the viruses (avipoxviruses, Newcastle disease viruses, adenovirus, avian influenza virus and papillomavirus) at a molecular level (Carulei et al, 2009;Hurt et al, 2014;Kane et al, 2012;Lee et al, 2014;Thomazelli et al, 2010;Varsani et al, 2014).…”