Skip to main content
PMC home page
Springer Nature - PMC COVID-19 Collection logoLink to Springer Nature - PMC COVID-19 Collection
. 1982;73(1):1–13. doi: 10.1007/BF01341722

Isolation of a coronavirus during studies on puffinosis, a disease of the Manx shearwater(Puffinus puffinus)

P A Nuttall 1, K A Harrap 1
PMCID: PMC7086650  PMID: 7125912

Summary

A virus was isolated from 2 day-old mice inoculated with homogenates of either the lungs or blood of 2 different shearwaters affected by puffinosis. Examination of infected suckling mouse brain and infected NCTC-1469 (mouse liver) cell cultures, by electron microscopy, revealed virus particles and inclusion bodies characteristic of a coronavirus. Neutralization, complement fixation and fluorescent antibody tests showed that the virus was related to mouse hepatitis virus. The virus was not isolated from 445 control, uninfected mice. Neutralising antibodies were not detected in 39 sera from diseased shearwaters and 2 sera from apparently healthy birds. Two shearwaters inoculated with the virus did not develop clinical signs of infection. The question of whether the virus was isolated from shearwaters or from laboratory mice is discussed.

Keywords: Hepatitis, Infectious Disease, Clinical Sign, Mouse Brain, Virus Particle

Footnotes

With 4 Figures

References

  • 1.Bárdos V., Schwanzer V., Peško J. Identification of Tettnang virus (“possible arbovirus”) as mouse hepatitis virus. Intervirol. 1980;13:275–283. doi: 10.1159/000149135. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  • 2.Chong, K. T., Apostolov, K.: The pathogenesis of nephritis in chickens induced by infectious bronchitis virus. J. Comp. Path. (in press). [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed]
  • 3.Clarke D. H., Casals J. Techniques for haemagglutination and haemagglutination-inhibition with arthropod-borne viruses. Am. J. Trop. Med. Hyg. 1958;7:516–573. doi: 10.4269/ajtmh.1958.7.561. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  • 4.Clarke J. K., McFerran J. B. An electron microscopic study of haemagglutinating encephalomyelitis virus of pigs. J. gen. Virol. 1971;13:339–344. doi: 10.1099/0022-1317-13-2-339. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  • 5.Dane D. S. A disease of Manx shearwaters (Puffinus puffinus) J. Anim. Ecol. 1948;17:158–164. [Google Scholar]
  • 6.Dane D. S., Miles J. A. R., Stoker M. G. P. A disease of Manx shearwaters: further observations in the field. J. Anim. Ecol. 1953;22:123–133. [Google Scholar]
  • 7.David-Ferreira J. F., Manaker R. A. An electron microscope study of the development of a mouse hepatitis virus in tissue culture cells. J. Cell Biol. 1965;24:57–78. doi: 10.1083/jcb.24.1.57. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  • 8.Diamond A. W. Puffinosis among Manx shearwaters. Brit. Birds. 1966;59:82–84. [Google Scholar]
  • 9.Grist N. R., Bell E. J., Follett E. A. C., Urquart G. E. D. Diagnostic methods in clinical virology. Oxford: Blackwell; 1979. [Google Scholar]
  • 10.Hamre D., Kindig D. A., Mann J. Growth and intracellular development of a new respiratory virus. J. Virol. 1967;1:810–816. doi: 10.1128/jvi.1.4.810-816.1967. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  • 11.Harris M. P. Puffinosis among Manx shearwaters on Skokholm. Brit. Birds. 1965;58:426–434. [Google Scholar]
  • 12.Hirai K., Yagami K., Shimakura S., Hirano N., Taguchi F., Suzuki Y. Growth of infectious bronchitis virus in suckling mice brain. Res. Bull. Fac. Agr. Gifu Univ. 1976;39:165–170. [Google Scholar]
  • 13.Koren H. S., Handwerger B. S., Wunderlich J. R. Identification of macro-phage-like characteristics in a cultured murine tumour line. J. Immunol. 1975;114:894–897. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  • 14.Lennette E. H., Schmidt N. J. Diagnostic procedures for viral, rickettsial, and chlamydial infections, ch. 26, 767–814. Washington D.C.: American Public Health Association, Inc.; 1979. [Google Scholar]
  • 15.McIntosh K. Coronaviruses: a comparative review. Curr. Top. Microbiol. Immunol. 1974;63:85–129. [Google Scholar]
  • 16.de Madrid A. T., Porterfield J. S. A simple micro-culture method for the study of group B arboviruses. Bull. W.H.O. 1969;40:113–121. [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  • 17.Miles J. A. R., Stoker M. G. P. Puffinosis, a virus epizootic of the Manx shearwater(Puffinus p. puffinus) Nature. 1948;161:1016–1017. doi: 10.1038/1611016a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  • 18.Piazza M. Experimental viral hepatitis. Springfield, Ill.: Ch. C Thomas; 1969. [Google Scholar]
  • 19.Rehse-Küpper B., Danielová V., Ackermann R. Isolierung eines für Mäuse pathogenen Virus ausIxodes ricinus (L.) in Nordrhein-Westfalen und in Oberschwaben. Zentrbl. Bakt., I. Abt. Orig. 1973;A244:168–177. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  • 20.Robb J. A., Bond C. W. Coronaviridae. In: Fraenkel-Conrat H., Wagner R. R., editors. Newly Characterized Vertebrate Viruses (Comprehensive Virology, Vol. 14) New York-London: Plenum Press; 1979. pp. 193–247. [Google Scholar]
  • 21.Stoker M. G. P., Miles J. A. R. Studies on the causative agent of an epizootic amongst Manx shearwaters (Puffinus p. puffinus) J. Hyg. 1953;51:195–202. doi: 10.1017/s002217240001562x. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  • 22.Tyrrell D. A. J., Almeida J. D., Cunningham C. H., Dowdle W. R., Hofstad M. S., McIntosh K., Tajima M., Zakstelskaya L. Ya., Easterday B. C., Kapikian A., Bingham R. W. Coronaviridae. Intervirol. 1975;5:76–82. doi: 10.1159/000149883. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from Archives of Virology are provided here courtesy of Nature Publishing Group

RESOURCES