Emerging Virus in Raccoons May Provide Cancer Clues

[Shiloh]

Source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/12/121212130946.htm

Emerging Virus in Raccoons May Provide Cancer Clues

Dec. 12, 2012 ? Rare brain tumors emerging among raccoons in Northern California and Oregon may be linked to a previously unidentified virus discovered by a team of researchers, led by scientists from the University of California, Davis. Their findings, published December 12 in the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases, could lead to a better understanding of how viruses can cause cancer in animals and humans...

...The common factor, found in all of the tumors, was a newly described virus, dubbed raccoon polyomavirus. Researchers suspect this virus contributes to tumor formation.

Polyomaviruses, which are prevalent but rarely cause cancer, do not typically cross from one species to another, so the outbreak is not expected to spread to people or other animals...

...Journal Reference:

F. N. Dela Cruz et al. Novel Polyomavirus associated with Brain Tumors in Free-Ranging Raccoons, Western United States. Emerging Infectious Diseases, Volume 19, Number 1; January 2013

 

[Emily]

Northern CA, USA: Polyomavirus found in cluster of rare brain tumors in racoons

Northern CA, USA: Polyomavirus found in cluster of rare brain tumors in racoons

Removed.

 

[Emily]

Re: Emerging Virus in Raccoons May Provide Cancer Clues

http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Scientists-unravel-mystery-of-fatal-raccoon-4187778.php

Scientists unravel mystery of fatal raccoon disease
Ellen Huet
Published 5:06 pm, Friday, January 11, 2013
[snip]
Tumors are already rare in raccoons, and the emergence of a new virus that is highly correlated with the brain tumors is a startling find that makes perfect sense to Piazza and WildCare's staff, who had noticed the disease for years but often had to classify it as distemper, a different virus, because they didn't know what it was.
[snip]
But Pesavento and Piazza hope also to answer eventually the bigger question: Is there an environmental cause to the disease outbreak?

"Raccoons are a good sentinel species to what's going on in our back yard," Piazza said. "If they're getting cancers and living in our water sources and trash and back yards, then it's something to pay attention to."

Since the tumors are olfactory in origin, that might be the entry point for the virus.

http://www.vetmed.ucdavis.edu/pesavento_lab/research/raccoon_poly.cfm

Emerging Disease: Raccoon Polyomavirus

Polyomaviruses infect an array of vertebrate species including birds, humans, non-human primates, bovids, rodents, and sea lions. Perhaps the most famous of the family is SV40, a simian virus let loose in humans by contaminated polio vaccine. Humans have their own spectrum of polyomaviruses as well, and luckily in natural mammalian hosts, the common consequence of viral exposure is establishment of a persistent but asymptomatic infection. There are, however, more dangerous outcomes of infection that include viral driven cancer. With the human polyomaviruses, the opportunity to study transmission and tumor transformation is limited by a long lag time (~50 years) between exposure and tumor formation. Natural routes of exposure and mechanisms of persistence are not known. One way to gain insight in the role of PyVs in tumorigenesis is to study natural models of viral induced tumorigenesis. We propose to study a virus that our laboratory discovered- Raccoon polyomavirus (RacPyV), which is associated with olfactory tract/brain tumors in raccoons. RacPyV has been found in a cluster of temporally and spatially defined tumors in raccoons in Northern California. It is a fascinating story, and one that is unfolding in collaborations with LSU, UCSF, Fish and Game, and our diagnostic laboratory here at UC Davis.

And a horror story for the raccoons.