One more piece in the VACV ecological puzzle: could peridomestic rodents be the link between wildlife and bovine vaccinia outbreaks in Brazil?

• Published in: PloS one Vol. 4; no. 10; p. e7428
• Main Authors: Abrahão, Jônatas S, Guedes, Maria Isabel M, Trindade, Giliane S, Fonseca, Flávio G, Campos, Rafael K, Mota, Bruno F, Lobato, Zélia I P, Silva-Fernandes, André T, Rodrigues, Gisele O L, Lima, Larissa S, Ferreira, Paulo C P, Bonjardim, Cláudio A, Kroon, Erna G
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Public Library of Science 19.10.2009; Public Library of Science (PLoS)
• Subjects: Amino Acid Sequence; Analysis; Animals; Animals, Domestic; Animals, Wild; Biological Assay; Bovidae; Brazil - epidemiology; Cattle; Cattle Diseases - genetics; Cattle Diseases - virology; Cladistic analysis; Dairies; Dairy cattle; Ecology; Economic impact; Epidemiology; Etiology; Farms; Humans; Immunization; Infection; Infectious Diseases/Neglected Tropical Diseases; Infectious Diseases/Viral Infections; Inhabitants; Lesions; Mice; Molecular Sequence Data; Outbreaks; Phylogeny; Poxvirus; Public health; Public Health and Epidemiology/Infectious Diseases; Rats; Rattus norvegicus; Rodentia; Rodents; Rural areas; Sequence Homology, Amino Acid; Smallpox; Smallpox vaccines; Vaccination; Vaccines; Vaccinia; Vaccinia - transmission; Vaccinia - veterinary; Vaccinia - virology; Vaccinia virus; Vaccinia virus - classification; Vaccinia virus - genetics; Vaccinia virus - isolation & purification; Virology/Emerging Viral Diseases; Viruses; Wild animals; Wildlife; Zoonoses; Zoonoses - epidemiology; Brazil
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0007428

Despite the fact that smallpox eradication was declared by the World Health Organization (WHO) in 1980, other poxviruses have emerged and re-emerged, with significant public health and economic impacts. Vaccinia virus (VACV), a poxvirus used during the WHO smallpox vaccination campaign, has been involved in zoonotic infections in Brazilian rural areas (Bovine Vaccinia outbreaks - BV), affecting dairy cattle and milkers. Little is known about VACV's natural hosts and its epidemiological and ecological characteristics. Although VACV was isolated and/or serologically detected in Brazilian wild animals, the link between wildlife and farms has not yet been elucidated. In this study, we describe for the first time, to our knowledge, the isolation of a VACV (Mariana virus - MARV) from a mouse during a BV outbreak. Genetic data, in association with biological assays, showed that this isolate was the same etiological agent causing exanthematic lesions observed in the cattle and human inhabitants of a particular BV-affected area. Phylogenetic analysis grouped MARV with other VACV isolated during BV outbreaks. These data provide new biological and epidemiological information on VACV and lead to an interesting question: could peridomestic rodents be the link between wildlife and BV outbreaks?