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      The role of Virus "X" ( Tortoise Picornavirus) in kidney disease and shell weakness syndrome in European tortoise species determined by experimental infection

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      PLoS ONE
      Public Library of Science

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          Abstract

          Tortoise Picornavirus (ToPV) commonly known as Virus "X" was recently discovered in juvenile European tortoises suffering from soft carapace and plastron as well as kidney disease. Therefore, this virus was a potential candidate to be a causative agent for these disease patterns. Spur thighed tortoises ( Testudo graeca) seemed to be more susceptible to establish clinical symptoms than other European species like T. hermanni. Thus this trial investigated the role of ToPV in the described syndrome. Two groups of juvenile European tortoises ( T. graeca and T. hermanni) each of 10 animals, were cloacally, oronasally and intracoelomically inoculated with an infectious dose (~ 2000 TICD) of a ToPV strain isolated from a diseased T. graeca. A control group of two animals of each species received non-infected cell culture supernatant. The tortoises were examined daily and pharyngeal and cloacal swabs for detection of ToPV-RNA by RT-PCR were taken from each animal every six days for a period of 6 months. At the end of the study the remaining animals were euthanised and dissected. Bacteriological and parasitological tests were performed and organ samples of all tortoises were investigated by RT-PCR for the presence of ToPV and histopathology. Animals that were euthanised at the end of the experiment, were examined for presence of specific anti-ToPV antibodies. Several animals in both inoculated groups showed retarded growth and a light shell weakness, in comparison to the control animals. Three animals were euthanised during the trial, showing reduced weight gain, retarded growth, severe shell weakness and apathy, in parallel to clinical observations in naturally infected animals. In all inoculated animals of both species an intermittent virus shedding, starting from 18 days post inoculation (d.p.i.), till 164 d.p.i. was detected, while the control animals remained negative. The virus was successfully reisolated in terrapene heart cell culture in 16 of 20 inoculated animals of both species. Histopathology of most inoculated animals revealed a lack of bone remodeling and vacuolisation in kidney tubuli which supports the described pathogenesis of nephropathy and osteodystrophy. Anti- ToPV antibody titres ranged from 1:2 to >1:256 in 13 of 20 animals, whereas all control animals were seronegative. The study proofed the Henle Koch`s postulates of ToPV as causative agent for shell dystrophy and kidney disease in both testudo species. The proposed species specific sensitivity towards clinical disease was not observed.

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          Prevalence of viral infections in captive collections of boid snakes in Germany.

          Data on viral infections in apparently healthy snake collections in Germany were obtained with respect to husbandry conditions and health status. Samples from 100 boid snakes (from 14 collections) were examined microbiologically and for the presence of paramyxoviruses (PMVs) using RT-PCR. Blood was tested for the presence of antibodies against PMV, adenovirus and reovirus and for inclusion bodies indicative of inclusion body disease. Nine snakes tested positive for PMV, and inclusion bodies were detected in six snakes. Antibodies against PMV were found in one snake, and two snakes had antibodies against an adenovirus. A significant correlation was found between the origin of the snake and the presence of PMV, and between the presence of remarkable microbiological findings and husbandry conditions.
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            Detection of Mycoplasma spp., herpesviruses, topiviruses, and ferlaviruses in samples from chelonians in Europe

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              Immunity in the tortoise Testudo ibera.

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                Author and article information

                Contributors
                Role: Writing – original draftRole: Writing – review & editing
                Role: Writing – review & editing
                Role: Methodology
                Role: Data curation
                Role: ConceptualizationRole: Funding acquisitionRole: Project administrationRole: SupervisionRole: Writing – review & editing
                Role: Editor
                Journal
                PLoS One
                PLoS ONE
                plos
                plosone
                PLoS ONE
                Public Library of Science (San Francisco, CA USA )
                1932-6203
                19 February 2019
                2019
                : 14
                : 2
                : e0210790
                Affiliations
                [1 ] Clinic for Birds, Reptiles, Amphibians and Fish, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Justus Liebig University, Giessen, Germany
                [2 ] Department of Veterinary Pathology, Freie Universitaet Berlin, Germany
                [3 ] Unit for biomathematics and Data Processing, Justus Liebig Universitiy, Giessen, Germany
                Instituto Butantan, BRAZIL
                Author notes

                Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

                Author information
                http://orcid.org/0000-0001-8120-7238
                Article
                PONE-D-18-10884
                10.1371/journal.pone.0210790
                6380536
                30779796
                7bf07685-07b6-4f8d-910e-81380b3de48d
                © 2019 Paries et al

                This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

                History
                : 3 May 2018
                : 2 January 2019
                Page count
                Figures: 9, Tables: 1, Pages: 17
                Funding
                The authors received no specific funding for this work.
                Categories
                Research Article
                Biology and Life Sciences
                Organisms
                Eukaryota
                Animals
                Vertebrates
                Amniotes
                Reptiles
                Testudines
                Tortoises
                Biology and Life Sciences
                Anatomy
                Renal System
                Kidneys
                Medicine and Health Sciences
                Anatomy
                Renal System
                Kidneys
                Medicine and Health Sciences
                Euthanasia
                Biology and Life Sciences
                Physiology
                Physiological Parameters
                Body Weight
                Weight Gain
                Medicine and Health Sciences
                Physiology
                Physiological Parameters
                Body Weight
                Weight Gain
                Biology and Life Sciences
                Anatomy
                Histology
                Medicine and Health Sciences
                Anatomy
                Histology
                Biology and Life Sciences
                Physiology
                Immune Physiology
                Antibodies
                Medicine and Health Sciences
                Physiology
                Immune Physiology
                Antibodies
                Biology and Life Sciences
                Immunology
                Immune System Proteins
                Antibodies
                Medicine and Health Sciences
                Immunology
                Immune System Proteins
                Antibodies
                Biology and Life Sciences
                Biochemistry
                Proteins
                Immune System Proteins
                Antibodies
                Research and Analysis Methods
                Biological Cultures
                Cell Cultures
                People and Places
                Geographical Locations
                Europe
                Custom metadata
                All relevant data are within the paper.

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