Rhabdoviruses

Volume I

D. H. L. Bishop

• Publisher: CRC Press
• Year: 2018
• Print ISBN: 9781315897288
• eBook ISBN: 9781351093286
• Topic: Biological Sciences
• Subtopic: Biology
• Index: Biological Sciences

The goal of this book series has been to provide an overview of rhabdovirology as a whole (including an appraisal of current research findings), suitable for students, teachers, and, research workers. To realize this goal many of the research leaders in the different disciplines of rhabdovirology were asked to contribute chapters.

Chapter 1

NATURAL HISTORY OF THE RHABDOVIRUSES OF VERTEBRATES AND INVERTEBRATES

F. Brown and Joan Crick

TABLE OF CONTENTS

I.	Introduction
II.	Vesicular Stomatitis Virus A. Introduction B. The Disease C. History D. Present Distribution of the Disease E. Epizootiology
III.	Piry Virus
IV.	Chandipura Virus
V.	Isfahan Virus
VI.	Rabies Virus A. Introduction B. The Disease C. Transmission D. Diagnosis E. Epizootiology F. History G. Present Distribution of the Disease
VII.	Rabies-Related Viruses A. Introduction B. History and Distribution
VIII.	Other Viruses
IX.	Discussion
Acknowledgments
References

I. INTRODUCTION

Rhabdoviruses are found in many vertebrates, invertebrates, and plants. Because of this wide host range there has been much speculation for many years as to whether viruses found in one kind of host will also infect other kinds of host. Some members have, in fact, been shown to replicate in both vertebrates and invertebrates and others in both plants and invertebrates. For example, vesicular stomatitis virus will infect several vertebrate hosts and also multiply in Aedes mosquitoes.¹, ², ³ Furthermore, Lastra and Esparza⁴ have shown that vesicular stomatitis virus will grow in leafhoppers, which are the natural vector of maize mosaic virus, a plant rhabdovirus. It has been suggested that some rhabdoviruses which infect plants may also infect vertebrates,⁵ but the evidence for this seems to be slight. In this chapter we have confined our attention to those members infecting vertebrates and invertebrates. The plant viruses are reviewed by Francki and Randles⁶ in Chapter 7 of Volume III.

The characteristic bullet shape of the rhabdoviruses means that they are easily recognized in the electron microscope. So far about 30 such viruses have been found in vertebrates but only about one third have been characterized by methods other than electron microscopy. Two genera, Vesiculo and Lyssa, have been proposed on the basis of serological interrelationships.⁷ The Vesiculo genus includes the different serotypes of vesicular stomatitis virus and also Piry, Chandipura, and Isfahan viruses (Table 1). Although other viruses are present in the list given by Fenner,⁷ we consider that there is insufficient evidence for their inclusion in the Vesiculo genus at this stage.

By far the best characterized member of the group is vesicular stomatitis virus. Historically this has been because vesicular stomatitis has a close clinical relationship with the more economically important foot-and-mouth disease. In addition to the two classical serotypes of vesicular stomatitis virus, Indiana and New Jersey,⁸ which have been known for more than 50 years, three other closely related viruses have been found during the last 15 years.⁹, ¹⁰, ¹¹ These are the Cocal, Argentina, and Brazil (Alagoas) strains, which are related to the Indiana serotype. Piry,¹² Chandipura,¹³ and Isfahan¹⁴ viruses have also been allotted to the Vesiculo group but the serological relationship of these three viruses to each other and to the other Vesiculo viruses is much less pronounced.

The Lyssa group, listed in Table 2, includes rabies virus which is by far the most important rhabdovirus infecting vertebrates. This virus will infect all warm-blooded animals and the disease is almost invariably fatal. In recent years three viruses related serologically to rabies virus have been isolatee in Africa. These are Mokola,¹⁵ Lagos bat,¹⁶ and Duvenhage viruses¹⁷ and they can be regarded as new serotypes of rabies virus. They could be important epidemiologically because animals vaccinated against rabies are often poorly protected against the related viruses. Two other viruses, Obodhiang¹⁸ and Kotonkan,¹⁹ also found in Africa, are distantly related to Mokola virus.

Far less is known about the other rhabdoviruses. A list of these viruses and the hosts in which they have been found are given in Table 3. Apart from bovine ephemeral fever virus and the viruses which infect fish and which are clearly of great and increasing economic importance, the other members are of interest mainly because of their possible relatedness to the remainder of the family. Bovine ephemeral fever virus is the subject of Chapter 8 Volume III²⁰ and the fish viruses are described in Chapter 9 in Volume III²¹ and will not be considered here.

II. VESICULAR STOMATITIS VIRUS

A. Introduction

Vesicular stomatitis virus is the prototype of the family Rhabdoviridae. The virus can infect horses, pigs, and cattle, and is clinically indistinguishable from foot-and-mouth disease, vesicular exanthema, and swine vesicular disease, all of which are of economic importance to the farming industry. Consequently vesicular stomatitis virus has received a great deal of attention. It is also an excellent model for studying a variety of problems in molecular virology.

TABLE 1

The Members of the Vesiculo Genus of the Rhabdoviridae and their Geographical Distribution

Virus	Species from which virus has been isolated	Species in which specific antibody has been found in serological surveys	Geographical distribution
Vesicular stomatitis Indiana	Cattle, horses, horseflies, man, mosquitoes, pigs, sandflies	Birds, cattle, dogs, horses, man, pigs	North and South America
Cocal	Mites, rodents	Horses, rodents	Trinidad, Brazil
Argentina	Horses	Horses	Argentina
Brazil	Cattle, horses	Cattle, horses, man	Brazil
New Jersey	Cattle, horses, man, pigs	Cattle, deer, dogs, horses, man, pigs	North and South America
Piry	Man, opossums	Bats, edentates, man, marsupials, monkeys, pigs, rodents	Brazil
Chandipura	Hedgehogs, man, sandflies	Buffaloes, cattle, camels, donkeys, goats, horses, man, monkeys, sheep	India, Nigeria
Isfahan	Sandflies	Gerbils, man	Iran

TABLE 2

The Members of the Lyssa Genus of the Rhabdoviridae and their Geographical Distribution

Virus	Species from which virus has been isolated	Species in which specific antibody has been found in serological surveys	Geographical distribution
Rabies	Many warm-blooded animals	^a	Worldwide
Lagos bat	Bat...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Chapter 1 Natural History of the Rhabdoviruses of Vertebrates and Invertebrates
• Chapter 2 Systems for Assay and Growth of Rhabdoviruses
• Chapter 3 Serologic Relationships of Animal Rhabdoviruses
• Chapter 4 Electron Microscopy of the Rhabdoviruses of Animals
• Chapter 5 The Lipid Envelope and Chemical Composition of Rhabdoviruses
• Chapter 6 Rhabdoviral RNA Structure
• Chapter 7 Rhabdovirus Nucleocapsid
• Chapter 8 Structure, Synthesis, and Function of the Vesicular Stomatitis Virus Glycoprotein
• Chapter 9 Viral Membrane Protein Structure and Function
• Chapter 10 Viral Transcriptase
• Index