Detection and characterisation of papillomavirus in skin lesions of giraffe and sable antelope in South Africa

• Main Authors: E. van Dyk, A-M Bosman, E. van Wilpe, J. H. Williams, R. G. Bengis, J. van Heerden, E. H. Venter
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: AOSIS 2011-04-01
• Series: Journal of the South African Veterinary Association
• Online Access: https://jsava.co.za/index.php/jsava/article/view/39

Papillomavirus was detected electron microscopically in cutaneous fibropapillomas of a giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis) and a sable antelope (Hippotragus niger). The virus particles measured 45 nm in diameter. Histopathologically, the lesions showed histopathological features similar to those of equine sarcoid as well as positive immunoperoxidase-staining of tissue sections for papillomavirus antigen. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) detected bovine papillomavirus (BPV) DNA. Bovine papillomavirus-1 was characterised by real-time PCR in the sable and giraffe, and cloning and sequencing of the PCR product revealed a similarity to BPV-1. As in the 1st giraffe, the lesions from a 2nd giraffe revealed locally malignant pleomorphism, possibly indicating the lesional end-point of papilloma infection. Neither virus particles nor positively staining papillomavirus antigen could be demonstrated in the 2nd giraffe but papillomavirus DNA was detected by real-time PCR which corresponded with BPV-1 and BPV-2.