A novel papillomavirus isolated from proliferative skin lesions of a wild American beaver (Castor canadensis).
Cutaneous papillomatosis was diagnosed in an adult American beaver (Castor canadensis). Gross lesions included numerous exophytic, roughly circular, lightly pigmented lesions on hairless areas of fore and hind feet and the nose. The most significant histopathologic findings were multifocal papilliform hyperplasia of the superficial stratified squamous epithelium, with multifocal koilocytes, and multiple cells with large, darkly basophilic intranuclear inclusion bodies. A virus with properties consistent with papillomavirus (PV) was recovered by virus isolation of skin lesions, utilizing rabbit and feline kidney cell lines. The presence of the virus was confirmed by PV-specific polymerase chain reaction. The partial sequences of E1 and L1 genes did not closely match those of any PVs in GenBank, suggesting that this might be a new type of PV. Partial E1 and L1 nucleotide sequences of the beaver papillomavirus (hereafter, ARbeaver-PV1) were used to create a phylogenetic tree employing the complete E1 and L1 open reading frame nucleotide sequences of 68 PVs. The phylogenetic tree placed the ARbeaver-PV1 in a clade that included the Mupapillomavirus (HPV1 and HPV63) and Kappapapillomavirus (OcPV1 and SfPV1) genera. The present article confirms the papillomaviral etiology of cutaneous exophytic lesions in the beaver.
Department of Veterinary Microbiology and Pathology, College of Veterinary Medicine, Washington State University, PO Box 647040, Pullman, WA 99164-7040, USA. artem@vetmed.wsu.edu
Artem S
AS
Rogovskyy
Timothy V
TV
Baszler
Daniel S
DS
Bradway
Darren L
DL
Bruning
Christine M
CM
Davitt
James F
JF
Evermann
Robert D
RD
Burk
Zigui
Z
Chen
Kristin G
KG
Mansfield
Gary J
GJ
Haldorson
D000818:Animals; D004279:DNA, Viral / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics; D027383:Papillomaviridae / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D030361:Papillomavirus Infections / Q000473:pathology / Q000662:veterinary* / Q000821:virology; D010802:Phylogeny; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction / Q000662:veterinary; D012376:Rodent Diseases / Q000821:virology*; D012377:Rodentia; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D017193:Skin Diseases, Viral / Q000473:pathology / Q000662:veterinary* / Q000821:virology
D004279:DNA, Viral