Viruses, Vol. 12, Pages 198: Mosquito-Independent Transmission of West Nile virus in Farmed Saltwater Crocodiles (Crocodylus porosus)

Viruses, Vol. 12, Pages 198: Mosquito-Independent Transmission of West Nile virus in Farmed Saltwater Crocodiles (Crocodylus porosus) Viruses doi: 10.3390/v12020198 Authors: Habarugira Moran Colmant Davis O’Brien Hall-Mendelin McMahon Hewitson Nair Barcelon Suen Melville Hobson-Peters Hall Isberg Bielefeldt-Ohmann West Nile virus, Kunjin strain (WNVKUN) is endemic in Northern Australia, but rarely causes clinical disease in humans and horses. Recently, WNVKUN genomic material was detected in cutaneous lesions of farmed saltwater crocodiles (Crocodylus porosus), but live virus could not be isolated, begging the question of the pathogenesis of these lesions. Crocodile hatchlings were experimentally infected with either 105 (n = 10) or 104 (n = 11) TCID50-doses of WNVKUN and each group co-housed with six uninfected hatchlings in a mosquito-free facility. Seven hatchlings were mock-infected and housed separately. Each crocodile was rotationally examined and blood-sampled every third day over a 3-week period. Eleven animals, including three crocodiles developing typical skin lesions, were culled and sampled 21 days post-infection (dpi). The remaining hatchlings were blood-sampled fortnightly until experimental endpoint 87 dpi. All hatchlings remained free of overt clinical disease, apart from skin lesions, throughout the experiment. Viremia was detected by qRT-PCR in infected animals during 2–17 dpi and in-conta...
Source: Viruses - Category: Virology Authors: Tags: Article Source Type: research