Can the Ocean Make You Sick

It is fitting for the theme of IIFET 2000 “Microbehavior and Macroresults” that some of the smallest life forms on planet Earth (caliciviruses measuring 36 nanometers in diameter), which replicate only inside the living cells of their hosts, be examined. From their beginnings in this microscopic ecologic niche where they are spawned, caliciviruses spill forth into a variety of ocean reservoirs and then bridge the land-sea interface where they can have profound effects on a variety of diverse life forms including livestock and humans. Thus, from the intracellular microenvironment to the macroenvironmental issues involving seafood harvest, livestock production and consumer concerns of seafood and food safety to the societal processes of human diseases and their diagnosis and prevention, the very large footprints of the very tiny caliciviruses will be examined for their relevance and impact on broad issues relative to this session. These are the biological, environmental and social processes affected by this virus of ocean origin.Keywords: calicivirus, ocean, livestock, human, diseases, IIFE

SmithAlvin.VeterinaryMedicine.CalicivirusGenusVesivirus.pdf

The first calicivirus was described 75 years ago in California in a foot- and-mouth--like epidemic in swine. Control measures were slaughter and burial of all affected pigs. However, epidemic spread among swine continued for 24 years, then the disease disappeared. The virus was declared eradicated, but was re-discovered 16 years later in aborting marine mammals in the Pacific Basin Sixty-six years after discovery, the first human infections were published as a blistering disease of the hands, feet and face. This virus (genus Vesivirus) with large, diverse ocean reservoirs in fish, shellfish, seals and whales had become a human pathogen. Pathogenic vesiviruses can be associated with abortion, encephalitis, myocarditis, pancreatitis, blistering, hemorrhagic death and hepatitis among domestic animals, zoo-animals and marine mammals. Human involvement is less defined except for blistering and as we report here, hepatitis. Over 1000 sera collected from blood-donors, both normal and with suspected liver disease and from clinical hepatitis cases in the USA and Europe, all testing negative for known hepatitis viruses, were tested for vesiviral antibodies. ELISA tests compared 5 antigen preparations (3 individual vesivirus serotypes, FCV-F9, SMSV-9, and 7420, a pool of 3 additional serotypes, SMSV types 5,13 and 17, and a recombinant peptide, D3A). Vesiviral sero-specificity was supported by positive results using western blot, a riboprobe, and RT-PCR amplification. Viruses FCV-F9 and SMSV-9 detected no difference in prevalence of vesiviral antibody between groups (about 2-3% positive). The remaining three antigens gave an antibody prevalence of 12% in normal populations, double that in individuals with evidence of liver disease and 47-60% positive in cases of post-transfusional hepatitis. We conclude that these data provide evidence of a vesiviral induced hepatitis, which can be transfusion transmitted. We propose calling this newly described disease hepatitis vesiviral (HVV)

Isolation and characterization of a new Vesivirus from rabbits

AbstractThis report describes the isolation, cDNA cloning, complete genome nucleotide sequence, and partial characterization of a new cultivable calicivirus isolated from juvenile feeder European rabbits (Oryctolagus cuniculus) showing symptoms of diarrhea. Absence of neutralization by type-specific neutralizing antibodies for 40 caliciviruses and phylogenetic sequence comparisons of the open reading frame 1-encoded polyprotein with those of other caliciviruses demonstrate that this new calicivirus is a putative novel member of the Vesivirus genus which is closely related to the marine calicivirus subgroup. According to its putative classification, this new virus has been named rabbit vesivirus

Are Your Polyhedra the Same as My Polyhedra?

“Polyhedron ” means different things to different people. There is very little in common between the meaning of the word in topology and in geometry. But even if we confine attention to geometry of the 3-dimensional Euclidean space – as we shall do from now on – “polyhedron ” can mean either a soli