Thanks to some accidental feline fieldwork , scientists have detailed the first - ever jeilongvirus to be found in the US – and it also happens to be the first of its kind ever to have been identify at all .
It began when a big cat named Pepper stroll into his home in Gainesville , Florida , and dropped a utter computer mouse at his owner ’s feet . A well - intentioned , perhaps , but rather unpleasantofferingthat would broadcast slew of us screeching in the polar direction .
That was n’t the guinea pig for Pepper ’s owner , John Lednicky – for him , the mouse was an opportunity .
Lednicky , a enquiry professor at the University of Florida , is an expert in virus and had been conducting research investigate whether or not rodents were a transmitter for mule deerpox virus , a character of virus thatcausescharacteristic tegument lesions in deer .
When Lednicky and his team test the mouse , however , there was n’t any mule deerpox virus to be found . rather , they discovered that it was infected with a jeilongvirus .
Until this point , theJeilongvirusgenus of viruses had never been seen in the US before ; they ’d only been found in South America , Europe , Africa , and Asia , where they mostly infect rodents , but can also infect bat and felines ( do n’t worry – Pepper did n’t get sick ) .
But not only had the investigator – and Pepper – made a US - first uncovering , they ’d also made a world - first one ; genetic testing revealed the jeilongvirus to be discrete from others within the genus . It ’s been named Gainesville rodent jeilong virus 1 ( GRJV1 ) .
“ We were not anticipating a computer virus of this sort , and the find reflects the realization that many viruses that we do n’t love about pass around in creature that live in close proximity to humans . And indeed , were we to look , many more would be discovered , ” said Emily DeRuyter , first writer of the paper detail the discovery , in astatement .
Jeilongviruses also belong to to a wider viral family known as the paramyxoviruses , which are known for being communicate between coinage – promise aspillover eventwhen it moves to a new boniface – and causing respiratory infection in humans . The team infected the cell of different species with GRJV1 to see if it had the potential to do the same .
“ It grow every bit well in rodent , human , and nonhuman primate ( monkey ) cells , making it a swell candidate for a spillover consequence , ” Lednicky explain .
That ’s not to say a spillover case is likely to occur – most human beings do n’t have much link with the wild rat and mice that carry them – but it ’s something that the team says should be investigated .
“ Ideally , animal subject field would be done to determine whether the virus causes illness in rodents and other pocket-size creature , ” say Lednicky . “ finally , we need to find if it has affected man in Gainesville and the rest of Florida . ”
The study is put out inPathogens .
