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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Vet. Sci.
Sec. Zoological Medicine
Volume 11 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fvets.2024.1470052
This article is part of the Research Topic Advanced Veterinary Topics in Elasmobranchs View all 8 articles

Novel adomavirus associated with proliferative skin lesions affecting the dermal denticles of a sand tiger shark (Carcharias taurus)

Provisionally accepted
Ashley L. Powell Ashley L. Powell 1Alvin C. Camus Alvin C. Camus 1*John H. Leary John H. Leary 1Sarah N. Miller Sarah N. Miller 2Cynthia M. Bell Cynthia M. Bell 3Terry Fei Fan Ng Terry Fei Fan Ng 1
  • 1 College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Georgia, Athens, United States
  • 2 Georgia Aquarium, Atlanta, Georgia, United States
  • 3 Specialty Oral Pathology for Animals, Geneseo, United States

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    A captive sand tiger shark (Carcharias taurus) presented with progressive, hard, raised, miliary skin lesions localized to the lateral trunk and peduncle. Histopathologic evaluation of biopsy samples revealed dysplastic proliferation of odontogenic epithelium with the production of collagenous material. Inclusion bodies and viral particles were not observed with light or transmission electron microscopy, respectively. However, using next generation sequencing with Illumina MiSeq and PCR followed by Sanger sequencing, the complete genome of a novel adomavirus, tentatively named sand tiger shark adomavirus (STAdoV), was obtained from the affected tissue. The genome was circular and 18.5 kilobases with bidirectionally transcribed genes, namely EO1, EO2 & 4, EO3, LO4, LO5, LO6, LO7, LO8, and SET. In situ hybridization using RNAscope® technology and a STAdoV specific probe localized viral DNA to the nuclei of proliferating epithelial cells. Adomaviruses are an emerging viral group with structural and replicative genes sharing a complex evolutionary history with adenoviruses and small circular DNA tumor viruses including papillomaviruses and polyomaviruses. Adomaviruses are described in a number of fish species in association with both necrotizing and proliferative diseases. BLAST analysis of the viral genome revealed greatest nucleotide identity (71.29%) to guitarfish adomavirus (GAdoV), another elasmobranch virus associated with proliferative (epidermal) skin lesions. Lesions in the index animal persisted for approximately one year during which time four conspecifics developed similar proliferations. Ultimately, lesions in all sharks regressed spontaneously without recurrence for two years.

    Keywords: adomaviridae, Genome sequencing, histopathology, Denticle, elasmobranch, Odontogenic epithelium

    Received: 24 Jul 2024; Accepted: 18 Sep 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Powell, Camus, Leary, Miller, Bell and Ng. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Alvin C. Camus, College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Georgia, Athens, United States

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