Virulence and pathophysiology of the Congo Basin and West African strains of monkeypox virus in non-human primates.
Monkeypox virus is divided into Congo Basin and West African strains. The virulence and pathophysiology of two strains, Zr-599 (a Congo Basin monkeypox virus) and Liberia (a West African monkeypox virus), were evaluated in non-human primates. Four monkeys were infected by the subcutaneous (SC) and two by the intranasal (IN) inoculation routes for Zr-599 and Liberia at a dose of 10(6) p.f.u. One monkey in the Liberia/SC group was demonstrated to be co-infected with Gram-positive cocci and was excluded from analyses. Infections in three of the four Zr-599/SC monkeys and in one of the three Liberia/SC monkeys were fatal. Virus genome levels in blood in the Zr-599/SC monkeys were approximately 10 times higher than those in the Liberia/SC monkeys. Zr-599 affected respiratory, genito-urinary and gastrointestinal tract organs more severely than Liberia. Zr-599 was more virulent than Liberia and one of the factors might be the difference in organ tropism.
Saijo
Masayuki
M
Special Pathogens Laboratory, Department of Virology 1, National Institute of Infectious Diseases (NIID), 4-7-1 Gakuen, Musashimurayama, Tokyo 208-0011, Japan. msaijo@nih.go.jp
Ami
Yasushi
Y
Suzaki
Yuriko
Y
Nagata
Noriyo
N
Iwata
Naoko
N
Hasegawa
Hideki
H
Iizuka
Itoe
I
Shiota
Tomoyuki
T
Sakai
Kouji
K
Ogata
Momoko
M
Fukushi
Shuetsu
S
Mizutani
Tetsuya
T
Sata
Tetsutaro
T
Kurata
Takeshi
T
Kurane
Ichiro
I
Morikawa
Shigeru
S
D000354:Africa, Western; D000818:Animals; D002522:Chlorocebus aethiops; D003223:Congo; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D006801:Humans; D008252:Macaca fascicularis; D045908:Mpox, Monkeypox / Q000401:mortality / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000821:virology; D008993:Monkeypox virus / Q000302:isolation & purification / Q000472:pathogenicity*; D014709:Vero Cells; D014766:Viremia / Q000401:mortality / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000821:virology; D014774:Virulence