The Biology of Animal Viruses, Second Edition deals with animal viruses focusing on molecular biology and tumor virology. The book reviews the nature, chemical composition, structure, and classification of animal viruses. The text also describes the methods of isolating animal viruses, how these are grown in the laboratory, assayed, purified, and used in biochemical experiments. The book also describes the structure and chemistry of many known viruses such as the papovaviridae, herpes virus, poxvirus, coronavirus, or the Bunyamwera supergroup. The book then explains the structure and function of the animal cell including the cytoplasmic organelles, the nucleus, inhibitors of cell function, and viral multiplication. Other papers discuss in detail the multiplication of the DNA and RNA viruses, whose mechanisms of multiplication differ from those of other viruses. Other papers discuss the known prevention and treatment methods of viral diseases, as well as the epidemiology and evolution of viral diseases resulting from human's disturbance of the biosphere and from medical and experimental innovations. The text can prove useful for immunologists, veterinarians, virologists, molecular researchers, students, and academicians in the field of cellular microbiology and virology.

Understanding neutralization is particularly relevant to an appreciation of the interaction between a virus and its antibody-synthesizing host since it is likely that viruses and the antibody system have evolved in response to reciprocally imposed selective pressures. Neutralization of viruses which only infect non-antibody-synthesizing hosts, while of considerable interest from of points of view is de facto without any such evolutionary signifi a number cance. In this second category are viruses of plants, invertebrates, vertebrates below fish in the evolutionary scale which do not synthesize antibody and most bacteria. Viruses of organisms parasitic on or commensal with antibody synthesizing vertebrates, such as enteric bacteria, protozoa or metazoan parasites, will be in contac, with antibody at some stage of their existence, and arthropod-borne viruses which have a higher vertebrate as second host are obviously bona fide members of the first category. There is an urgent need to understand the principles by which antibodies inactivate virus infectivity since, at present, we are unable to rationally construct effective vaccines against new agents like the human immuno deficiency viruses or to improve existing vaccines. The intention of this volume is to comprehensively review neutralization and where possible to construct a unifying theory which can be tested by experimentation.

Advances in Virus Research

Animal Virus Structure provides a comprehensive, state-of-the-art summary of the structure, molecular composition, and principal antigenic and biological properties of each currently recognized family of animal viruses. Information deriving from electron microscopy, computer image processing and X-ray diffraction is integrated systematically with biochemical data into three-dimensional molecular models of viral architecture. A brief account of virus/cell interaction and pathogenicity completes each chapter.

This book, which is the first volume of the book series-Livestock Diseases and Management, summarizes the prominence and implications of the emerging and transboundary animal viruses. Although the livestock plays an important role in the economy of many countries, the emerging and transboundary animal viral diseases possess a serious risk to the animal-agriculture sector and food security globally. The book describes the precise and up-to-date information on animal viral diseases which have emerged in the recent past or are re-emerging due to various environmental factors and those which are not bounded in restricted national boundaries and attained the transboundary status. The chapters summarize the recent advancements in the molecular state-of-art tools towards the development of diagnostics, prophylactics, and therapeutics of these viruses. It also explicitly describes the challenges imposed by the emerging and transboundary viral infections and our preparedness to counter them.

Antiviral Strategies in the Treatment of Human and Animal Viral Infections provides a comprehensive overview of the most recent discoveries in the field of antiviral research. It covers topics like viral replication, immunological reactions, medication discovery, vaccine development, and clinical applications. It also provides a summary of the difficulties and possibilities in battling viral infections that affect both humans and animals. Antiviral Strategies in the Treatment of Human and Animal Viral Infections is a useful resource for researchers, doctors, veterinarians, and students who are interested in the prevention and treatment of viral infections

The Geographical Distribution of Animal Viral Diseases attempts to shed some light on the global distribution of 110 different viral diseases, mainly of livestock and companion animals. The world literature was screened for 110 different viruses, and maps were prepared. These maps delineate the global distribution of pathogenic viruses based on authenticated reports from a variety of reliable sources. Four viruses were categorized as affecting more than one species to a significant degree (astrovirus, rabies, rotaviruses, and Rift Valley fever). The largest number of maps involved viruses that affect humans. Of the 28 viruses a large number were from the California encephalitis group. Ten of the 28 viruses were reported only in the Eastern Hemisphere, 14 only in the Western Hemisphere, and four were worldwide. Birds were the next most frequently affected group with the 15 viruses, followed by pigs with 14 viruses. Overall the vector-borne viruses appear to have much sharper and clear-cut geographical boundaries than the others.

Viruses, being obligatory parasites of their host cells, rely on a vast supply of cellular components for their replication, regardless of whether infection leads to cell death or to the state of persistence. Animal viruses are providing scientists with relatively simple models to study the molecular biology of genome replication and gene expression. Whereas viruses use, in general, pathways of macromolecular biosynthesis common to the host cell, they have a cunning ability to adopt unusual mechanisms of gene expression and gene replication, provided these special pathways offer an advantage in competition for cellular resources. Any study of viral gene expression and replication is likely to lead also to new insights in cellular metabolism. The discoveries of cis-acting regulatory elements in transcription, the phenomenon of splicing of pre mRNA, and cap-dependent and cap-independent initiation of translation may be cited as examples. In addition, animal virus genomes contain elements and encode proteins that are very useful for the design of vectors for gene cloning and expression in mammalian cells. Apart from the basic interest in their biology, viruses have gained notoriety, of course, because they are pathogens. Human animal viruses may cause diseases ranging from the deadly (AIDS) to the benign (common cold). All studies on animal viruses potentially lead to the development of tools for their control, be it through prevention by immunization or treatment with antiviral drugs. Finally, viruses have yielded invaluable reagents in molecular biology as, for example, the vaccinia virus vector for the expression of foreign genes.