Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to C H Calisher.
A virus isolated from the blood of a febrile horse in Argentina was identified as a strain of Kairi virus. This is the fifth Bunyamwera serogroup virus isolated from livestock and wild animals in the Americas. Bunyamwera serogroup viruses have been isolated from febrile humans in the Americas and Africa.
Two virus isolates, 1 each from Aedes campestris and Psorophora signipennis mosquitoes collected in south central New Mexico in August 1985, were shown by neutralization tests to be identical to each other, but not to any of more than 250 arthropod-borne and other viruses. Electron microscopy of 1 isolate (85-488NM, chosen as the prototype) indicated that this strain shares morphologic characteristics with viruses of the family Rhabdoviridae. Indirect fluorescent antibody tests indicated that this virus is a member of the genus Vesiculovirus, but is not closely related to any of the North American or other rhabdoviruses with which it was tested, including vesicular stomatitis (Indiana) and vesicular stomatitis (New Jersey) viruses. The name Malpais Spring virus is proposed for this newly recognized vesiculovirus. A serologic survey indicated that Malpais Spring virus infects indigenous (mule deer and pronghorn) and exotic (gemsbok) ungulates at and near the sites where the mosquitoes from which the virus strains were isolated were collected. Antibody prevalence in wild animals indicates that the pronghorn and gemsbok may play roles as hosts for Malpais Spring, epizootic hemorrhagic disease (New Jersey), and bluetongue viruses in this area.
A virus, strain 64A-1519, isolated from the brain of a horse dying of encephalitis in Florida in 1964, was identified as western equine encephalomyelitis (WEE) virus. Recently, we used polyclonal and monoclonal immune reagents to identify this isolate by comparing it to 2 strains of WEE virus and to Highlands J (HJ) virus in hemagglutination-inhibition, immunofluorescent antibody, and plaque-reduction neutralization tests. These tests demonstrate that strain 64A-1519 is a strain of HJ virus distinct from WEE virus.
The causative agents of Ockelbo disease in Sweden, Pogosta disease in Finland, and Karelian fever in the USSR have been attributed to alphaviruses (family Togaviridae) related to Sindbis virus. We compared prototypes Sindbis, Ockelbo, and Karelian fever viruses by neutralization tests. We also analyzed oligonucleotide fingerprint maps of prototypes Ockelbo and Karelian fever viruses and a strain of Sindbis virus from Czechoslovakia. The results indicate that Ockelbo and Karelian fever viruses are essentially identical and suggest that Ockelbo disease, Pogosta disease, and Karelian fever are synonyms for the same disease.
For many years the expression "tick-borne encephalitis (TBE) virus" has been used to denote viruses causing the clinical entity TBE. No virus with the name "TBE virus" has been registered in the International Catalogue of Arboviruses, the generally accepted reference for naming arthropod-borne viruses, and no formal agreement has been reached within the scientific community to use the expression "TBE virus"; this term is inaccurate for indicating the etiologic agent of the disease TBE and confuses students and others regarding virus ecology, transmission, and disease severity. This paper suggests alternative names for viruses of the antigenic complex of flaviviruses (family Flaviviridae) to which viruses causing TBE belong. A classification scheme and system of taxonomy for flaviviruses is also proposed. It is suggested that universal acceptance of the term Central European encephalitis virus would improve the dialogue between laboratory virologists and clinicians and improve the understanding of the epidemiology of the tick-borne flaviviruses.
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Aedes aegypti mosquitoes were inoculated intrathoracically with prototype Sindbis virus, held at 26.7 degrees C for from 0-95 h and placed at -70 degrees C. Individual mosquitoes were tested for virus by plaque assay in Vero cells, for viral RNA by nucleic acid hybridization using a cloned cDNA probe, and for viral protein by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Virus was detected by plaque assay as early as 8 h after infection. Sindbis virus RNA was detected by nucleic acid hybridization 18 h after infection and by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay 10 h after infection. The results of these comparisons suggest that both nucleic acid hybridization and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay are applicable to direct detection of Sindbis virus in mosquitoes containing virus at levels usually found during arbovirus epidemics.
Two strains of the same virus (isolates AR 168 and 7856), were isolated in 1981 from an apparently healthy cow and a sick sheep in TX, U.S.A. These isolates were shown to be members of the Bunyamwera serogroup (family Bunyaviridae, genus Bunyavirus) by complement-fixation tests. Serum dilution-plaque reduction neutralization test results indicated that the isolates are closely related to Cache Valley virus. The virus isolates were characterized by sensitivity to lipid solvent, size (50-100 nm by filtration and 70 nm by electron microscopy), heat (56 degrees C) and pH 3 lability, cytopathic effects or plaques in cultures of Vero, LLC-MK2, embryonic bovine testicle and PS cells, and pathogenicity for suckling and weaned mice by the intracranial but not the intraperitoneal route. Gnotobiotic and conventional sheep and goats were experimentally infected by inoculation with one of the isolates given either intravenously or intraperitoneally. Elevation of body temperature, depression, tremors, muscle spasms, disorientation, feeding anomalies, convulsions, or other signs of central nervous system disturbances were observed.
Twenty strains of Colorado tick fever (CTF) virus, isolated from ticks, mammals and humans, and two antigenic relatives of CTF virus were compared in cross-neutralization tests. Viruses were tested using single-inoculation sera prepared in hamsters. Antigenic variation, as measured by differences detected in the neutralization test, was noted among the virus isolates identified as strains of CTF virus. The virus strains isolated from humans appeared to vary the most in serological reactions. The two antigenic relatives of CTF virus are clearly distinct from strains of CTF and are different from each other. Antigenic relationships between these two viruses were established using two sets of single-inoculation antisera and both complement fixation and neutralization tests. Six distinct antigenic variants of CTF virus isolated from humans and the virus strain from ticks (75V1906) that showed the least antigenic variation, were tested against 49 coded serum pairs from clinically diagnosed cases of CTF. Significant differences were noted in the number of convalescent-phase sera that reacted with each virus strain and in the number of seroconversions observed with each test virus strain. Convalescent phase sera that reacted with multiple virus strains often varied significantly in antibody titre from one virus strain to another. This indicates that, in some instances, antibody was probably produced in response to infection by different antigenic variants of CTF virus.
A procedure was developed for producing a hemagglutinin for the California serogroup (family Bunyaviridae, genus Bunyavirus) virus Jamestown Canyon, a human pathogen. Serum samples from humans putatively infected with this virus or with La Crosse virus were tested by hemagglutination inhibition. Each antigen detected antibody to the respective virus, with little cross-reactivity. These results suggest that both antigens should be used when the hemagglutination inhibition test is applied to the diagnosis of human infections with California serogroup viruses in North America.
Mosquitoes were collected in Santa Fe and Rio Negro provinces, Argentina, in 1982-1983 during a western equine encephalitis (WEE) epizootic. Totals of 153,084 mosquitoes from Santa Fe Province and 484 from Rio Negro Province were tested for virus in 2,351 pools. Seventeen virus strains were isolated, all from Santa Fe collections, as follows: 4 WEE, 6 Venezuelan equine encephalitis, 1 St. Louis encephalitis, 2 Antequera, 1 Maguari, 1 Melao, 1 new vesiculovirus (Calchaqui), and 1 Gamboa. The WEE virus isolates were from Aedes albifasciatus, Anopheles albitarsis, Mansonia species, and Psorophora pallescens. Collections during the spring and summer (1983-1984) following the epizootic yielded 49,707 mosquitoes from Santa Fe, 15,961 from Rio Negro, and 2,019 from Chubut provinces. Twenty-two virus strains were isolated, all from Santa Fe mosquitoes, as follows: 3 strains of SLE virus and 19 strains of Turlock (TUR) virus. All but one of the TUR virus isolates appear to have come from mosquitoes that engorged on a viremic chicken following entry into a bait trap. The vector relationships of each virus isolated during and after the WEE epizootic are discussed.
In 1983, 17 virus strains were isolated from mosquitoes collected during an outbreak of western equine encephalitis in Santa Fe Province, Argentina. Strains of western equine encephalitis, Venezuelan equine encephalitis, St. Louis encephalitis, and Antequera viruses were isolated, as were several bunyaviruses of the California and Bunyamwera serogroups and a new vesiculovirus. Complement fixation and neutralization tests were used to identify the California serogroup virus as a subtype of Melao virus, the Bunyamwera serogroup virus as a subtype of both Maguari and Playas viruses, and the vesiculovirus as a newly recognized agent for which the name Calchaqui virus is proposed. A limited serosurvey of horses and humans in Santa Fe Province and horses from the adjacent Santiago del Estero Province was performed to determine the prevalence of neutralizing antibody to the subtypes of Melao and Maguari viruses and to Calchaqui virus. The high prevalence of antibodies to these three agents indicates the need for further studies of their disease potential in horses, because they are closely related to several other viruses that are known equine pathogens.
Prototype Thogoto virus from Kenya and Thogoto virus isolates from Portugal, Italy, Nigeria, Central African Republic, Cameroon, and Iran were cross-tested by hemagglutination inhibition and serum dilution plaque reduction neutralization. Considering the broad geographic distribution of these strains, the antigenic differences seen appear to be essentially minor. This uniformity suggests that the distribution of Thogoto virus is due to repeated introduction of virus from common sources and that such introduction may depend on the movement of tick-infested domestic animals.
We wished to demonstrate evidence of the presence of California serogroup viruses in Oregon and to test for the presence of certain other arboviruses in large ungulates. Blood samples from black-tailed deer (Odocoileus hemionus columbianus), mule deer (O. hemionus hemionus), and Roosevelt elk (Cervus elaphus roosevelti) from nine counties in Oregon were tested by serum-dilution plaque reduction neutralization for antibody to California serogroup viruses, including snowshoe hare, California encephalitis, and Jamestown Canyon, as well as to Cache Valley (Bunyamwera serogroup) and Klamath, an ungrouped rhabdovirus. Of 132 samples tested, 60 (46%) were found to be seropositive at a dilution of greater than or equal to 1:10 for at least one of the five different arboviruses. Forty (30%) samples contained antibody to more than one arbovirus, and 15 samples (11%) contained antibody to all five. Of these 15, 14 were from 75 black-tailed deer sera collected in Lincoln County, Oregon. Seropositivity rates for black-tailed deer ranged from 23% to 35%, with all five arboviruses represented. Positive reactions for all five arboviruses were represented among mule deer sera at rates from 5% to 29%. Elk sera were found to be positive for four of the viruses (none for Klamath virus). Although Cache Valley and Klamath viruses have been reported from Oregon, these data represent the first evidence of a California serogroup virus in the state.
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Blood samples collected in September and November 1980 from 87 horses in southwestern Michigan were examined for virus isolation and for plaque-reduction neutralizing antibody against selected arboviruses. Cache Valley virus was isolated from the blood of a clinically normal horse in St Joseph County in September. The age-specific antibody prevalence for Cache Valley virus indicated enzootic transmission in the study area. The high antibody prevalence and the lack of age-specific antibody prevalence indicated sporadic, but intense, exposure to Jamestown Canyon virus. Low prevalences of antibody were detected for Highlands J, snowshoe hare, St Louis encephalitis, and trivittatus viruses.
Sixteen virus isolates with similar biological characteristics were obtained from salt-marsh mosquitoes collected in south Texas in 1974. When compared antigenically, these and 13 other isolates from mosquitoes collected between 1972 and 1979 in west Texas, New Mexico, Louisiana, Colorado and North Dakota were shown to be related but not identical. Three distinct serotypes were determined: Bahia Grande (prototype strain TB4-1054), Reed Ranch (TB4-222) and Muir Springs (76V-23524). When examined by electron microscopy, these three viruses were shown to be rhabdoviruses. Structural analysis of the prototype strain of Bahia Grande virus from Texas revealed five proteins. Comparative oligonucleotide fingerprint maps showed 51 to 86% sharing of the large oligonucleotides between Bahia Grande virus (strain TB4-1054) and 11 other antigenically related isolates but not with Muir Springs virus (strain 76V-23524), an antigenically distinct isolate from mosquitoes collected in Colorado. A serological survey for antibody to Bahia Grande virus showed that humans, cattle, sheep, reptiles and wild mammals from south Texas had neutralizing antibodies to this virus.