Rinderpest

A Viral Biorealm page on the family Rinderpest

Baltimore Classification

Group V: (-) sense single-stranded RNA viruses

Higher order categories

Order: Mononegavirales Family: Dicistroviridae Genus: Cripavirus

Description and Significance

Rinderpest Virus (RPV), a term derived from German, meaning cattle-plague, is the cause of gastrointestinal illness most commonly seen in cattle and buffalo, but occurs less frequently and with less conspicuity in sheep, goats, camels, and some species of Sus. Among livestock plagues, Rinderpest is one of the oldest on record, dating back 9000 years, and was the subject of several pioneering insights in agricultural medicine (Broad, 1983). It is also believed that all other members of the Morbillivirus genus evolved from RPV (Norrby, E; 1985). The virus has recently been made to recombine to aid in the production of a more effective vaccine (Baron, Foster-Cuevas, et al.1999). RPV cannot infect humans, but the high mortality rate it exhibits in immunologically-naïve populations of cornerstone livestock, it is devastating to international trade, rural incomes, and the survivability of local populations alike (Shaila, 2006).

Genome Structure

The RPV genome is 15,881 base pairs long, and consists of a single molecule (nonsegmented) of negative-sense single-stranded RNA. This contains six genes that code for structural proteins, and two that code for non-structural proteins (Shaila, 2006) that are transcribed in order form a single promoter and the 3’ terminus of the molecule (Baron; Barrett;1999).

References

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Page authored for BIOL 375 Virology, September 2008