Novel Encephalomyelitis-Associated Astrovirus in a Muskox (Ovibos moschatus) – a Surprise from the Archives
Background: The small, single-stranded positive-sense RNA astroviruses are mostly known to be enteric viruses. In recent years, though, different astroviruses were reported in association with neurological disease in various species. In cattle, two distinct neurotropic astrovirus genotype species we...
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ftdatacite:10.7892/boris.130515 2023-05-15T17:13:40+02:00 Novel Encephalomyelitis-Associated Astrovirus in a Muskox (Ovibos moschatus) – a Surprise from the Archives Boujon, Céline Louise Koch, Michel Christoph Kauer, Ronja Veronique Keller-Gautschi, Elsbeth Hierweger, Melanie Michaela Hoby, Stefan Seuberlich, Torsten 2019 application/pdf https://dx.doi.org/10.7892/boris.130515 https://boris.unibe.ch/130515/ en eng BioMed Central Ltd. info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess 570 Life sciences; biology 590 Animals Zoology Text article-journal ScholarlyArticle 2019 ftdatacite https://doi.org/10.7892/boris.130515 2021-11-05T12:55:41Z Background: The small, single-stranded positive-sense RNA astroviruses are mostly known to be enteric viruses. In recent years, though, different astroviruses were reported in association with neurological disease in various species. In cattle, two distinct neurotropic astrovirus genotype species were described in numerous cases of nonsuppurative encephalomyelitis, with one of these viruses also reported in similar circumstances in several sheep. Here, we retrieved archived formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded brain tissues of a muskox diagnosed with a comparable disease pattern in 1982 and investigated them for the presence of neurotropic astroviruses with various techniques. Results: Initially, tissue samples scored positive for both neurotropic astroviruses by immunohistochemistry; however, unexpected results with further immunohistochemical testing, in situ hybridization and qRT-PCR prompted us to submit an RNA extract from the animal’s brain material to next-generation sequencing. We were thus able to obtain the full genome of a novel astrovirus, muskox astrovirus CH18 (MOxAstV-CH18), whose closest relative is an enteric ovine astrovirus. Subsequently, viral RNA could be detected with a specific RT-PCR in the brain of the affected animal, but not in faecal samples from the current muskoxen herd of the animal park where the animal used to be kept. Conclusions: We identified a novel astrovirus in a historical case of a captive muskox with nonsuppurative encephalomyelitis. Unfortunately, our results and the fact that no material from organs other than of the nervous system was available do not allow any assumption about the epidemiology or pathogenesis of the virus. Still, these findings are yet another piece of evidence that the tropism and species specificity of astroviruses could be more deceptive than generally assumed. Text muskox ovibos moschatus DataCite Metadata Store (German National Library of Science and Technology) |
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English |
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570 Life sciences; biology 590 Animals Zoology |
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570 Life sciences; biology 590 Animals Zoology Boujon, Céline Louise Koch, Michel Christoph Kauer, Ronja Veronique Keller-Gautschi, Elsbeth Hierweger, Melanie Michaela Hoby, Stefan Seuberlich, Torsten Novel Encephalomyelitis-Associated Astrovirus in a Muskox (Ovibos moschatus) – a Surprise from the Archives |
topic_facet |
570 Life sciences; biology 590 Animals Zoology |
description |
Background: The small, single-stranded positive-sense RNA astroviruses are mostly known to be enteric viruses. In recent years, though, different astroviruses were reported in association with neurological disease in various species. In cattle, two distinct neurotropic astrovirus genotype species were described in numerous cases of nonsuppurative encephalomyelitis, with one of these viruses also reported in similar circumstances in several sheep. Here, we retrieved archived formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded brain tissues of a muskox diagnosed with a comparable disease pattern in 1982 and investigated them for the presence of neurotropic astroviruses with various techniques. Results: Initially, tissue samples scored positive for both neurotropic astroviruses by immunohistochemistry; however, unexpected results with further immunohistochemical testing, in situ hybridization and qRT-PCR prompted us to submit an RNA extract from the animal’s brain material to next-generation sequencing. We were thus able to obtain the full genome of a novel astrovirus, muskox astrovirus CH18 (MOxAstV-CH18), whose closest relative is an enteric ovine astrovirus. Subsequently, viral RNA could be detected with a specific RT-PCR in the brain of the affected animal, but not in faecal samples from the current muskoxen herd of the animal park where the animal used to be kept. Conclusions: We identified a novel astrovirus in a historical case of a captive muskox with nonsuppurative encephalomyelitis. Unfortunately, our results and the fact that no material from organs other than of the nervous system was available do not allow any assumption about the epidemiology or pathogenesis of the virus. Still, these findings are yet another piece of evidence that the tropism and species specificity of astroviruses could be more deceptive than generally assumed. |
format |
Text |
author |
Boujon, Céline Louise Koch, Michel Christoph Kauer, Ronja Veronique Keller-Gautschi, Elsbeth Hierweger, Melanie Michaela Hoby, Stefan Seuberlich, Torsten |
author_facet |
Boujon, Céline Louise Koch, Michel Christoph Kauer, Ronja Veronique Keller-Gautschi, Elsbeth Hierweger, Melanie Michaela Hoby, Stefan Seuberlich, Torsten |
author_sort |
Boujon, Céline Louise |
title |
Novel Encephalomyelitis-Associated Astrovirus in a Muskox (Ovibos moschatus) – a Surprise from the Archives |
title_short |
Novel Encephalomyelitis-Associated Astrovirus in a Muskox (Ovibos moschatus) – a Surprise from the Archives |
title_full |
Novel Encephalomyelitis-Associated Astrovirus in a Muskox (Ovibos moschatus) – a Surprise from the Archives |
title_fullStr |
Novel Encephalomyelitis-Associated Astrovirus in a Muskox (Ovibos moschatus) – a Surprise from the Archives |
title_full_unstemmed |
Novel Encephalomyelitis-Associated Astrovirus in a Muskox (Ovibos moschatus) – a Surprise from the Archives |
title_sort |
novel encephalomyelitis-associated astrovirus in a muskox (ovibos moschatus) – a surprise from the archives |
publisher |
BioMed Central Ltd. |
publishDate |
2019 |
url |
https://dx.doi.org/10.7892/boris.130515 https://boris.unibe.ch/130515/ |
genre |
muskox ovibos moschatus |
genre_facet |
muskox ovibos moschatus |
op_rights |
info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.7892/boris.130515 |
_version_ |
1766070844989112320 |