Molecular Investigation of Wildlife Herpesvirus and Parapoxvirus: Benefits and Limitations of Genetic Characterization of dsDNA Viruses from Tissues ...

• Main Author: Dalton, Chimoné Stefni
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: unknown
• Published: Veterinary Medicine 2019
• Subjects: Herpesvirus; Orf virus; Virology; Molecular surveillance; Genome; PCR; Muskox; Caribou; Marten; Forestry and Wildlife; Epidemiology; Physics > Molecular; Canada; caribou; muskox
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.11575/prism/37354; https://prism.ucalgary.ca/handle/1880/111363

Wildlife populations can be reservoirs or victims of pathogens shared with humans and/or domestic animals. Most diseases at the wildlife-livestock interface are caused by viruses. Herpesviridae and Parapoxviridae are families of important double-stranded DNA (dsDNA) viruses that have been implicated in diseases of wildlife, domestic animals, and humans resulting from spill-over or zoonotic transmission, yet still little is known about viruses circulating in wildlife. Wildlife health surveillance is a primary tool for the management of zoonotic diseases, the control of diseases of domestic animals, and the preservation of wildlife populations. Studies herein conduct molecular surveillance of herpesviruses (HV) and orf virus (a parapoxvirus) through diagnostic polymerase-chain reactions (PCR), sequencing, and phylogenetic analysis using tissues of various wildlife animal species in Canada. The viral DNA polymerase (DPOL) gene is an effective target for the detection and characterization of HV present in ...