Microbiology Reference Libraries
Rift Valley Fever (RVF) is a viral zoonosis that causes fever. It is spread through infected mosquitoes. It was first reported in 1915 in Kenya were it infected livestock. Outbreaks occur across sub-Saharan Africa, and in the "˜77-"˜78 outbreak several million people were infected and thousands died during a violent epidemic. In 1998 the virus killed 400 Kenyans and in 2000 an outbreak...
Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) causes respiratory tract infections and is a major cause of lower respiratory tract infection and hospital visits during infancy and childhood. For premature infants and infants with congenital heart disease there is a prophylactic medication. During winter months in temperate climates there is an annual epidemic. Infection in tropical climates is most...
Reoviridae is a family of viruses that can affect the gastrointestinal system (such as Rotavirus) and respiratory tract. These viruses have genomes consisting of segmented, double-stranded RNA. The name is derived from respiratory enteric orphan viruses. Orphan virus means that a virus that is not associated with any known disease. Reovirus infection occurs often in humans, but cases are...
The rabies virus is neurotropic virus, transmissible through the saliva of animals, that causes fatal disease in human and animals. Rabies is the type species of the Lyssavirus genus of Rhabdovirdae family. They are enveloped and single stranded RNA genome with negative-sense. All replication takes place in the cytoplasm. The virus has a bullet-like shape. Rabies enters the host cells through...
Potato virus Y (PVY) is a plant pathogenic virus of the family Potyviridae. It is one of the most important plant viruses affecting potatoes. Infection results in various symptoms depending on the strain. Production loss is the most mild of the symptoms and "˜potato tuber necrotic ringspot disease' is the worst. Ringspot renders potatoes unmarketable and can therefore result in a major...
Polyomavirus is the sole genus of viruses within the family Polyomaviridae. Ludwik Gross discovered the first polyomavirus, Murine polyomavirus, in 1963. Many polyomaviruses infect birds and mammals and have been extensively studied as tumor viruses in humans and animals. Polyomaviruses are DNA-based, small, and icosahedral in shape. They can potentially cause tumors and often persist as latent...
The Polydnaviruses (PDV) are a family of insect viruses that contain two genera: Ichnoviruses (IV) and Bracoviruses (BV). The ichnoviruses occur in ichneumonid wasps and bracoviruses in braconid wasps. The virus is composed of multiple segments of double-stranded superhelical DNA packaged in capsid proteins and a double layer or single layer envelope. The full genome of the virus is...
Poliovirus, the causative agent of poliomyelitis and a member of the family of Picornaviridae, is a human enterovirus. It is composed of an RNA genome that is a single-stranded positive-sense RNA. It was first isolate in 1909 and was published in 1981. It is one of the most well characterized viruses and has become a useful model system for understanding the biology of RNA viruses. It...
Phocine distemper virus (PDV) is a pathogenic for pinniped species such as seals. Signs include labored breathing, fever, and nervous symptoms. It was first identified in 1988 as the cause of death of 18,000 harbour seals along the northern European coast. A PDV epidemic occurred again in 2002 along the North Sea coast resulted in the deaths of 21,700 seals. Numerous carnivorous mammal species...
The cottontail rabbit papilloma virus (CRPV), is a type I virus under the Baltimore scheme and posses a non-segmented dsDNA genome. It infects rabbits by causing keratinous carcinomas usually near the animal's head. These tumors eventually interfere with the host's ability to eat and can lead to starvation. The virus provided the first mammalian model of a cancer caused by a virus. The name...
