Cowpox virus, a relative of monkeypox virus and smallpox virus is endemic to Europe and Asia. Like monkepox virus, cowpox virus can be transmitted from animals to humans causing the disease cowpox. Rodents are natural carriers (reservoir host) to both cowpox virus and monkeypox virus.
In a new study, Prof Okeke and his team of international collaborators sequenced the genomes of cowpox viruses isolated from humans and cats in Norway and Sweden and used the genomes to infer the evolution of cowpox virus and other relatives including monkeypox virus, smallpox virus, vaccina virus (smallpox vaccine strain), etc.
The study demonstrated that cowpox virus is not a single species as presently classified but a polyphyletic assemblage of several species, and thus a reclassification of cowpox virus is warranted. The study also showed that cowpox viruses have over time exchanged genes (recombination) with itself and other similar viruses in the same genus but these exchanges did not have a significant effect on the evolution of the virus.
According to the researchers, "the present study demonstrated the high genetic heterogeneity among CPXV (cowpox virus) isolates and the polyphyletic character of CPXV. Furthermore, our findings confirmed that CPXV was not a single species but a polyphyletic assemblage of several (up to 18) subspecies. Therefore, the current classification of CPXV as one single species should be re-evaluated.
"Overall, this study has shed significant insight into cowpox virus evolution, phylogeny, and classification (CPXV)”.
The study is published in the journal Viruses (IF 5.818|CiteScore 6.6). Please use this link to access the study