Ermias D. Belay

Emerging Infectious Diseases

Crossref

BOOK REVIEWS
Emerging Infectious Diseases • www.cdc.gov/eid • Vol. 10, No. 12, December 2004 2265
Emergence and
Control of Zoonotic
Viral
Encephalitides
C.H. Calisher and D.E. Griffin,
Editors
Springer-Verlag, Wien, New York
ISBN: 3-211-20455-5 (hardcover)
Pages: 244, Price: US $189;
Euros 147.85
The viral encephalitides of
Eastern, Western, and Venezuelan
equine encephalitis viruses have been
of public health concern for years.
Over the last decade, several out-
breaks caused by emerging zoonotic
viral encephalitides, such as West Nile
virus in North America and Nipah
virus in Malaysia and Singapore in
1999, resulted in serious illnesses and
deaths in persons, domesticated food
animals, and wildlife. The Institute of
Medicine has cited a number of fac-
tors that have led to these and other
emerging disease outbreaks: 1) a
growing human population that is
moving into habitats of wildlife and
domesticated livestock and poultry; 2)
global climate changes that have
caused changes in arthropod vector
and rodent reservoir populations; 3)
rapid travel and movement of people
and animals worldwide; and 4) chang-
ing human behaviors (1). Emergence
and Control of Zoonotic Viral
Encephalitides is a timely book that
gives an overview of agent, host,
environmental, and other factors that
have led to the emergence and trans-
mission of several zoonotic viral
encephalitides, including flaviviruses,
alphaviruses, and rabies virus. The
book also details important avenues
for their control. 
This book is a special issue of the
Archives of Virology, and its 244
pages comprise 21 presentations that
were made at a symposium on
“Emergence and Control of Zoonotic
Viral Encephalitides.” The sympo-
sium was held April 6–8, 2003, in Les
Pensieres, Veyrier du Lac, France.
The first presentation gives an
overview of the emergence of zoonot-
ic viruses maintained by wildlife
reservoir hosts and describes a con-
ceptual model of processes that would
account for the transmission of virus-
es among species. The second presen-
tation describes the role of disease
surveillance in polio eradication and
the identification of emerging viral
encephalitides. The third presentation
gives an overview of the mechanisms
of genetic changes and neuroviru-
lence of encephalitogenic arboviruses. 
The following 13 presentations
include overviews of molecular deter-
minants of virulence of West Nile
virus in North America, genetic deter-
minants of Venezuelan equine
encephalitis virus, evolution and dis-
persal of encephalitic flaviviruses,
and West Nile and other zoonotic
viruses in Russia. Presentations that
follow address lyssaviruses and heni-
paviruses transmitted by frugivorous
bats, host-management strategies of
novel viral encephalitides associated
with bats, regulation of transcription
and the nature of the cell receptor with
regard to henipaviruses, and entry
machinery of flaviviruses. Also
included are presentations on persist-
ent infection and suppression of host
response by alphaviruses, subversive
neuroinvasive strategy of rabies virus,
neurovirulence and host factors in fla-
vivirus encephalitis, regulation of
apoptosis by viruses infecting insects,
and Semliki Forest virus infection of
laboratory mice as models to study the
pathogenesis of viral encephalitis. 
The book finishes with presenta-
tions on a novel principle of attenua-
tion for developing new generation
live flavivirus vaccines, on tick-borne
encephalitis, and on a recombinant
vaccine developed from a canarypox
virus carrying the prM/E genes of
West Nile virus that will protect hors-
es against a West Nile virus–mosquito
challenge, and on diagnosis of
zoonotic viral encephalitis.
The book will be worthwhile to
virologists and other infectious dis-
ease researchers and practitioners
interested in the biology, virulence,
and genetic evolution of viral
encephalitides, and the factors
involved in their emergence.
Marguerite Pappaioanou*
*Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia, USA
Reference
1. Institute of Medicine. Microbial threats to
health: emergence, detection and response.
Washington: National Academy Press;
2003.
Address for correspondence: Marguerite
Pappaioanou, Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention, 1600 Clifton Rd, NE, Mailstop
D69, Atlanta, GA 30333, USA; fax: 404-639-
7490; email: mxp1@cdc.gov  
Prions and Prion
Diseases: Current
Perspectives
Glenn C. Telling, Editor
Horizon Bioscience, Norfolk,
England
ISBN: 0-9545232-6-1
Pages: 307, Price: U.S. $180
Prion diseases, also known as
transmissible spongiform encephalo-
pathies, are rapidly progressive, uni-
formly fatal brain diseases that can
infect humans and animals, including
cattle, sheep, goats, mink, deer, elk,
cats, and zoo ungulates. In humans,
prion diseases can occur as a sporadic
BOOK REVIEWS
2266 Emerging Infectious Diseases • www.cdc.gov/eid • Vol. 10, No. 12, December 2004
or inherited disease, or as a result of
iatrogenic transmission. Prion dis-
eases generated great public concern
after an outbreak of bovine spongi-
form encephalopathy occurred in
many European countries and scien-
tific evidence indicated its transmis-
sion to humans.
Research in prion diseases is ham-
pered by certain unconventional prop-
erties of the presumed etiologic agent
and the long incubation period associ-
ated with these diseases. Most con-
ventional laboratory methods used to
study viruses and bacteria may not be
applicable. In the past, the etiologic
agent of transmissible spongiform
encephalopathies was believed to be a
slow virus, primarily because of its
transmissibility, ability to retain infec-
tivity after filtration, and long incuba-
tion period. The successful transmis-
sion of scrapie, a centuries-old prion
disease of sheep, to mice in 1961
greatly facilitated identification and
characterization of the scrapie agent.
Several characteristics of the scrapie
agent suggest that the agent is not a
virus but is likely composed primarily
of a protein. The agent’s characteris-
tics include the absence of disease-
specific nucleic acids; resistance to
radiation, nucleases, and standard
sterilization and disinfection methods;
and inactivation by protein-modifying
procedures. These observations and
purification of the scrapie prion in the
early 1980s led to widespread accept-
ance of the prion hypothesis.
Since the 1980s, both the scope
and nature of prion disease research
has progressed rapidly. The economic
and human cost associated with the
bovine spongiform encephalopathy
outbreak fueled the need to better
understand the etiologic agent of
prion diseases and their basic trans-
mission mechanism. Prions and Prion
Diseases: Current Perspectives sum-
marizes the advances in prion disease
research. It expands on a previous
volume edited by David Harris that
was published in 1999 under the title
Prions: Molecular and Cellular
Biology. The book’s 10 chapters
describe the biochemical and molecu-
lar features of prions and the normal
prion protein, various laboratory
methods for studying prions, and
advances in the pathogenesis and
immunology of prion diseases.
Chapters 2 through 6 detail labora-
tory methods developed to study the
unconventional agent of prion dis-
eases. Chapter 2 describes a cell-free
conversion reaction system to study
how pathogenic prions associated
with different species interact with
host cellular prion protein. Such sys-
tems have been used to study the bio-
chemical mechanisms of prion dis-
eases and can potentially be used to
screen new therapies for their effec-
tiveness against prion diseases.
Chapter 3 describes the mechanisms
underlying the biosynthesis and cell
biology of the cellular prion protein
by using cell culture systems.
Understanding the detailed biochemi-
cal properties of the cellular prion
protein will help show the molecular
basis of its interaction with, and con-
version to, the pathogenic prions.
Subsequent chapters in the book
describe other laboratory methods,
including transgenic mouse models,
which can be used to investigate the
transmissibility of prions among dif-
ferent species, the extent and degree
of the “species barrier,” the mecha-
nism of prion propagation, and prion
disease pathogenesis.
Overall, the book provides a
wealth of information on the progress
made in understanding the molecular,
immunologic, and genetic aspects of
prion diseases and the laboratory
methods used to study them. This
book will be valuable to prion disease
researchers, to scientists who want to
gain more knowledge about the
progress made in understanding the
mechanisms of prion propagation, and
to persons just beginning to study
these unconventional, fatal brain dis-
eases.
Ermias D. Belay*
*Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia, USA
Address for correspondence: Ermias D. Belay,
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,
1600 Clifton Road, Mailstop A39, Atlanta, GA
30333, USA; fax: 404-639-3838; email:
ebelay@cdc.gov
Veterinary
Institutions in the
Developing World:
Current Status and
Future Needs
Cees de Haan, Editor
World Organisation for Animal
Health Scientific and Technical
Review
ISBN 92-9044-605-6
Pages: 397, Price: US $62.50; 50
Euros (including airmail postage)
Veterinary institutions help
improve animal health by providing
training that will enhance livestock
production and trade and protect pub-
lic health. The increasing role of ani-
mals in emerging infectious diseases
has emphasized the need to improve
veterinary services and integrate them
with public health services more
effectively. 
The World Organisation for
Animal Health devoted its Scientific
and Technical Review (Volume 23,
No. 1, April, 2004) to addressing
these weaknesses and the rapidly
changing environment of veterinary
services in developing countries. The
issue consisted of an introduction and
summary by the coordinator and con-
tributions from 28 persons organized
into six sections. The first section


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