Küchler, Leonore; Rüfli, Isabelle; Koch, Michel C.; Hierweger, Melanie M.; Kauer, Ronja V.; Boujon, Céline L.; Hilbe, Monika; Oevermann, Anna; Zanolari, Patrik; Seuberlich, Torsten; Gurtner, Corinne (2020). Astrovirus-Associated Polioencephalomyelitis in an Alpaca. Viruses, 13(1), p. 50. MDPI 10.3390/v13010050
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An 8-year-old alpaca was admitted to the emergency service of the Clinic for Ruminantsin Bern due to a reduced general condition and progressive neurological signs. Despite supportive treatment, its condition deteriorated and the animal had to be euthanized. Histopathological analysis revealed a severe non-suppurative polioencephalomyelitis with neuronal necrosis, most likely of viral origin. We detected abundant neuronal labelling with antibodies directed against two different epitopes of Bovine Astrovirus CH13/NeuroS1 (BoAstV-CH13/NeuroS1), which is a common viral agent associated with non-suppurative encephalitis in Swiss cattle. These findings were further verified by detection of viral RNA by use of in-situ hybridization and real-time RT-PCR. Next generation sequencing revealed that the detected virus genome had a pairwise identity of 98.9% to the genome of BoAstV-CH13/NeuroS1. To our knowledge, this is the first report of an astrovirus associated
polioencephalomyelitis in an alpaca. These results point to the possibility of an interspecies
transmission of BoAstV-CH13/NeuroS1.
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