A new viral research study
challenges the dogma that herpes viruses are considered to be strictly
host-specific. Scientists from the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife
Research (IZW) in Germany have discovered that a specific type of herpes,
gammaherpesvirus, switch amongst hosts far more frequently than previously
known. The two main groups in the study,
bats and primates, appear to be responsible for the transfer of these viruses
to other mammals in many cases. The
primary example in this study was observed in a species of common vampire bat
that is known to feed solely on animal blood, of this preference is given to domestic
pigs and cattle. Herpes viruses are
found throughout the animal kingdom, yet none have been observed to cross
species barriers; this is true for domestic cattle as well, however, researchers
tested the theory that the bats could be infected with a bovine herpes
virus. This spurred the researchers to collectively
analyze a wide range of documented and data sets and instances of herpes virus
sequencing from multiple hosts for comparative analysis. The researchers observed an interesting trend,
many herpes viruses thought to be host-specific actually share conclusive
traits with herpes viruses in multiple species.
Of these species the researchers concluded that a majority of
host-change for the virus occurred within bats, due to the wide geographic
activity and behaviors, and potentially primates. The researchers concluded this trend by hypothesizing
that the viruses were most likely interchanged between species more often, yet
the virus would adapt and modify to fit the host, thus presenting what was once
believed to be host-specificity.
-Ethan Wentworth
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