Vaccinia Virus among Domestic Dogs and Wild Coatis, Brazil, 2013–2015

Abstract

To determine their potential role as a source of human infection, we tested domestic dogs (urban) and wild coatis (wild) in Brazil for vaccinia virus. Our findings of positive neutralizing antibodies and quantitative PCR results for 35/184 dogs and 13/90 coatis highlight a potential public health risk.

Exposure of free‐ranging capybaras ( Hydrochoerus hydrochaeris ) to the vaccinia virus

“…The participation of capybaras in zoonosis transmission cycles as asymptomatic hosts and possible reservoirs have been reported (Valadas, Gennari, Yai, Rosypal, & Lindsay, ; Yai et al, ). The presence of the VACV in capybara blood and stool (Barbosa et al, ; Dutra et al, ) and in peridomestic rodents (Abrahão et al, ; Miranda et al, ; Peres et al, ) indicates that these animals may act as a source of the virus and serve as a link between wild and urban environments (Costa et al, ; Dutra et al, ; Oliveira et al, ). Virus transmission/circulation between different environments is favoured by the biological and behavioural characteristics of rodents, that is they are nocturnal, they live in overpopulated communities, and they practice coprophagia (Soetan, O'Connell, & Jones, ), which may have facilitated the VACV seropositivity found only in capybaras.…”

“…The serology results have their limitations, namely the chance of falsepositive and false-negative results; however, the techniques used were standardized and have established cut-off values (Kroon et al, 2016). Moreover, VACV DNA has been detected in primates (Sapajus nigritus and Alouatta caraya) (Abrahão et al, 2010), and hunting/domestic (Costa et al, 2019;Fiorello et al, 2017) and farm dogs (Peres et al, 2016). It is noteworthy that among the species investigated in this study, only capybaras showed positive serology results in an area without BV outbreaks or in any other report of animals that tested positive for the VACV.…”

“…Orthopoxvirus transmission between different species is possible (Kurth et al, 2008;Ninove et al, 2009), and rodents around farms could represent a risk factor (Abrahão et al, 2009) owing to the circulation of the VACV in Brazilian forests (Abrahão et al, 2010;Lopes et al, 1965). Similar to capybaras, coatis are found in wild environments and the surrounding urban areas; they could act as a bridge in promoting the transmission of the VACV between wild animals (primarily rodents) and humans (Costa et al, 2019).…”

“…However, recent discoveries have suggested the participation of synanthropic and wild rodents as well as several other wild animals in the natural transmission of the virus (Abrahão et al, 2009;Peres et al, 2018aPeres et al, , 2018b. Recent studies involving rodents and marsupials corroborated that these animals serve as connectors between wild and urban environments and maintain the VACV in nature (Costa et al, 2019;Peres et al, 2018aPeres et al, , 2018b.…”

Circulation of Vaccinia virus in Southern and Southeastern wildlife, Brazil

“…BV has been predominantly reported in rural areas, affecting mainly dairy cattle and humans, being a burden to public health and local dairy economies (Oliveira et al, 2017). Additionally, VACV has also been detected in other species present in the rural environment (equids and buffaloes) (Lima et al, 2019) and domestic animals in urban areas (dogs and cats) (Costa et al, 2018; Oliveira et al, 2017). However, VACV natural history and circulation in wildlife are still poorly explored (Miranda et al, 2017; Oliveira et al, 2017).…”