Encephalomyocarditis virus

From Citizendium
Revision as of 19:35, 13 May 2009 by imported>Haldryna O Garcia
Jump to navigation Jump to search
All unapproved Citizendium articles may contain errors of fact, bias, grammar etc. A version of an article is unapproved unless it is marked as citable with a dedicated green template at the top of the page, as in this version of the 'Biology' article. Citable articles are intended to be of reasonably high quality. The participants in the Citizendium project make no representations about the reliability of Citizendium articles or, generally, their suitability for any purpose.

Attention niels epting.png
Attention niels epting.png
This article is currently being developed as part of an Eduzendium student project in the framework of a course entitled Microbiology 201 at Queens College, CUNY. The course homepage can be found at CZ:Biol 201: General Microbiology.
For the course duration, the article is closed to outside editing. Of course you can always leave comments on the discussion page. The anticipated date of course completion is May 21, 2009. One month after that date at the latest, this notice shall be removed.
Besides, many other Citizendium articles welcome your collaboration!


This article is a stub and thus not approved.
Main Article
Discussion
Related Articles  [?]
Bibliography  [?]
External Links  [?]
Citable Version  [?]
 
This editable Main Article is under development and subject to a disclaimer.
Encephalomyocarditis Virus
3463361145 6c6339900e.jpg
Scientific classification
Family: Picornoviridae
Genus: Cardiovirus

Description and Significance

Encephalomyocarditis Virus(EMCV) is a member of the genus Cardiovirus of the family Picornaviridae. The Pacornavirusinfects many animal species, including pigs, rodents, cattle, elephants, raccoons, marsupials, and primates such as baboons, monkeys, chimpanzees, as well as humans. There are two types of EMVC. One is Encephalomyocarditis Virus type A, which causes reproductive problems. The other one is Encephalomyocarditis Virus type B, which causes heart failure in pigs. African Elephants were the first species that were known to be infected with the virus. The first outbreak ever seen was in South Africa in 1993. Between December 1993 and August 1994, a number of acute deaths occurred in free-ranging Africa elephants in the Kruger National Park KNP. 4


Genome

The main host of Encephalomyocarditis Virus(EMCV) are the rat and mouse. The virus is passed through fecal oral transmission. This discovery was documented after a large population explosion in rodents during the same time as a large of number of elephants where dying. Encephalomyocarditis Virus(EMCV) attacks many animals as mentioned previous but studies documenting pig infection seem most prevalent. This virus causes acute myocarditis and sudden death in preweaned pigs, whereas trans placental infections of sows cause fetal mummification, abortion, still birth,and neonatal death. 4 Once humans are infected with this virus, the symptoms they may be faced with include fever, neck stiffness, lethargy, delirium, headaches, and vomiting. In primates such as gibbons and owl monkeys, Encephalomyocarditis Virus can cause necrotizing and interstitial myocarditis.[6] Transmission and pathogenesis occurs by ; incubation from nine to ten days, oral, fecal and urine contamination of food, sub clinical infections, replication in myocardial and kills them.

Diagnose

Some diagnoses may be antemortem due to rapid clinical course, gross lesions such as pale streak in the myocardium, hydrothorax, hydropericardium, pulmonary edema, froth in tracheobronchial tree. Other diagnoses are through histopathology showing myocardial degeneration and necrosis with lymphocytic infiltrates, virus particles may be visible on electron microscopy, definitive diagnosis: virus isolation, PCR, mouse inoculation, serological test for antibodies available-Texas A&m. 5

Pathology

The only treatment I have read about actually a treatment, but prevention, the oil-adjuvant Encephalomyocarditis vaccine. This vaccine has been given to elephants, mice and pigs so far. Also, scientist are finding that controlling the rodent population is crucial to preventing the spread of this disease. Immune prophylaxis is considered to be another one of the effective strategies for controlling this virus in pigs and other animals who may possibly carry the virus. In humans it's very rare to get this virus.

Application to Biotechnology

There are many methods used to futher study the effects of this virus. One was the viruse isolation and serology, which consisted on inoculation of a infected tissue of the bull elephant in the Kruger National Park (KNP)into mice. Vaccine seed virus was prepared by adapting this E1-M1 isolated by passing five time on a monolayer of BHK 21 clone 13 cells which are used at the laboratory for routine foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) vaccine production. 4 Seology is the virus neutralization test that is used as antigen. Another way is the oil adjuvant which is the double suspension which was used as vaccine for pigs, elephants, and mice. Virus titrtion is flat-bottomed micro titer plates using an in-house modification and tryptose, referred to as Vac medium, for the dilution of the virus and suspension of the BHK cells. The plates where incubated at 37 Celsius for forty-eight hours in humidified chamber containing five percent of carbon dioxide and the test read with an inverted microscope. The last one mentioned in the journal was virus isolation of samples which were processed by diluting blood, ground up tissue or fecal samples and titrating the sample on microtiter plates, using BHK cells as an indicator system. Then the blood samples were diluted one over ten in medium and then diluted as described for the tissue sample. They were examined daily for cyopathogenic effect for up to seven days. 4

Current Research

 The efficacy of an experimental oil-adjuvanted encephalomyocarditis vaccine in elephants, mice and pigs

The scientist in charge of preparing this vaccine found that there are many ways develop the vaccine that is most appropriate to control the virus. One of the ways of doing so was cultivation of the virus, a multiple process monolayer production system employing BHK 21 clone13 cells was used as described with the modification of freezing and defrosting the rolloer flask before harvesting to enhance the release of virus. 4

References

1 Aravindan, V., Vickraman, P. 2007. A novel gel electrolyte with lithium difluoro(oxalato) borate salt and Sb2O3 nanoparticles for lithium ion batteries. Solid State Sciences 9(11): 1069-1073

2Brewer, L.A., Lwamba, H.C.M., Murtaugh, M.P., Palamnberg, A.C., Brown, C., Njenga, M.K.2001. Porcine Encephalomyocarditis Virus Persists in Pig Myocardium and Infects Human Myocardial Cells. Journal of Virology 75(23):11621-11629

3[1] Gandolf, DVM A.R. 2003. Encephalomyocarditis Virus (EMCV):Options for Vaccation of Elephants. Retrieved 2009, from American Association of Zoo Veterinarians website:

4Hunter, P., Swanepoel, S.P., Esterhuysen,J.J., Raath,J.p., Bengis,R.G.,and Van Der Lugt,J.J.1998. The efficacy of an experimental oil-adjuvanted encephalomyocarditis vaccine in elephants, mice and pigs. Vaccine 16(1):55-61

5[2]Mikota, DVM Susan. Encephalomycarditis (EMC, EMCV). Retrieved 2009, from Elephant Care International Website:


6[3] Encephalomyocarditis (EMCV). Retrieved 2009, from Zoologix, Inc. Website:

7[4]Encephalomyocarditis virus type A, causes reproductive problems, type B causes heart failure in pigs. Retrieved 2009, from European Bioinformatics Institute website