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


RESULTS
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.


CONCLUSIONS
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?
Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Instituto de Ciências Biológicas, Laboratório de Vírus, Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil.
Jônatas S
JS
Abrahão
Maria Isabel M
MI
Guedes
Giliane S
GS
Trindade
Flávio G
FG
Fonseca
Rafael K
RK
Campos
Bruno F
BF
Mota
Zélia I P
ZI
Lobato
André T
AT
Silva-Fernandes
Gisele O L
GO
Rodrigues
Larissa S
LS
Lima
Paulo C P
PC
Ferreira
Cláudio A
CA
Bonjardim
Erna G
EG
Kroon
D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D000829:Animals, Domestic; D000835:Animals, Wild; D001681:Biological Assay; D001938:Brazil / Q000453:epidemiology; D002417:Cattle; D002418:Cattle Diseases / Q000235:genetics / Q000821:virology*; D004463:Ecology; D006801:Humans; D051379:Mice; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010802:Phylogeny; D051381:Rats; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid; D014615:Vaccinia / Q000635:transmission / Q000662:veterinary* / Q000821:virology; D014616:Vaccinia virus / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D015047:Zoonoses / Q000453:epidemiology*