College of Public Health, Medical and Veterinary Sciences, Division of Tropical Health & Medicine, James Cook University, Townsville, Queensland, Australia.
Melrose Veterinary Hospital, Wodonga, Victoria, Australia.
Aust Vet J. 2022 Jul;100(7):329-335. doi: 10.1111/avj.13164. Epub 2022 May 1.
A novel alphaherpesvirus was detected in a captive adult, lactating, female koala (Phascolarctos cinereus) admitted to James Cook University Veterinary Emergency Teaching & Clinical Hospital in March 2019, showing signs of anorexia and severe respiratory disease. Postmortem examination revealed gross pathology indicative of pneumonia. Histopathology demonstrated a chronic interstitial pneumonia, multifocal necrotising adrenalitis and hepatitis. Intranuclear inclusion bodies were detected by light microscopy in the respiratory epithelium of the bronchi, bronchioles, alveoli, and hepatocytes, biliary epithelium and adrenal gland associated with foci of necrosis. Cryptococcus gattii was isolated from fresh lung on necropsy, positively identified by PCR, and detected histologically by light microscopy, only in the lung tissue. A universal viral family-level PCR indicated that the virus was a member of the Herpesviruses. Sequence analysis in comparison to other known and published herpesviruses, indicated the virus was a novel alphaherpesvirus, with 97% nucleotide identity to macropodid alphaherpesvirus 1. We provisionally name the novel virus phascolarctid alphaherpesvirus 3 (PhaHV-3). Further research is needed to determine the distribution of this novel alphaherpesvirus in koala populations and establish associations with disease in this host species.
一种新型α疱疹病毒在一只 2019 年 3 月被收入詹姆斯·库克大学兽医急诊教学医院的、有厌食和严重呼吸道疾病症状的圈养成年哺乳期雌性考拉（Phascolarctos cinereus）中被检测到。剖检发现大体病理变化提示肺炎。组织病理学显示为慢性间质性肺炎、多灶性坏死性肾上腺炎和肝炎。在支气管、细支气管、肺泡和肝细胞、胆管上皮和与坏死灶相关的肾上腺中，通过光学显微镜检测到核内包涵体。在剖检时从新鲜肺部分离出新型隐球菌（Cryptococcus gattii），通过 PCR 得到了阳性鉴定，并仅在肺部组织中通过光学显微镜在组织学上检测到。一种通用的病毒家族水平 PCR 表明该病毒是疱疹病毒家族的一员。与其他已知和已发表的疱疹病毒进行序列分析表明，该病毒是一种新型α疱疹病毒，与袋貂α疱疹病毒 1 的核苷酸同一性为 97%。我们暂时将这种新型病毒命名为考拉α疱疹病毒 3（PhaHV-3）。需要进一步的研究来确定这种新型α疱疹病毒在考拉种群中的分布，并确定其与该宿主物种疾病的关联。
