title: Characterization of orthopoxviruses isolated from man and animals in Germany.
abstract: Fourteen orthopoxvirus strains isolated from humans, cats, a dog, a cow, and an elephant in Germany were characterized. All were classified as cowpox virus based on haemorrhagic lesions induced on the chorioallantoic membrane of chicken eggs and reactivity of a 160 kDa protein with anti-A-type inclusion protein hyperimmune serum in a Western blot. More detailed comparison of the isolates by restriction endonuclease mapping using HindIII and XhoI demonstrated a close relationship between all isolates and confirmed them as cowpox viruses. However, some minor differences between the isolates were detected which proved to be of epidemiological value. One group consisting of five closely related isolates contained a unique 4.0 kb HindIII fragment. In a Southern blot this fragment failed to hybridize with other cowpox virus isolates including the reference strain.
authors.affiliation: Institute for Microbiology, Federal Armed Forces Medical Academy, Munich, Germany.
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Meyer
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Schay
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Mahnel
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Pfeffer
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D002415:Cats; D002417:Cattle; D002460:Cell Line; D002522:Chlorocebus aethiops; D002874:Chromosome Mapping; D015608:Cowpox virus / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics* / Q000302:isolation & purification; D015247:Deoxyribonuclease HindIII; D015252:Deoxyribonucleases, Type II Site-Specific; D004285:Dogs; D004606:Elephants / Q000821:virology*; D016679:Genome, Viral; D005858:Germany; D006801:Humans; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D012367:RNA, Viral; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA
chemical_list: D012367:RNA, Viral; D015247:Deoxyribonuclease HindIII; C034510:CTCGAG-specific type II deoxyribonucleases; D015252:Deoxyribonucleases, Type II Site-Specific