Centre for Ecology and Hydrology (formerly Institute of Virology), Mansfield Road, Oxford OX1 3SR, UK1
Rabbit-Wise, Holtside, Batts Corner, Dockenfield, Farnham, Surrey GU10 4EX, UK2
Institute of Biological Science, University of Stirling, Stirling FK9 4LA, UK3
Author for correspondence: E. A. Gould. Fax +44 1865 281696. e-mail eag{at}ceh.ac.uk
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Abstract |
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Introduction |
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Methods |
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Phylogenetic analysis.
The VP60 gene sequences were aligned using PILEUP (GCG, Wisconsin Package). Phylogenetic analyses were undertaken using PAUP*, version 4.0b8 (Swofford, 2000 ). The optimal evolutionary model to use with each data set was estimated using MODELTEST, version 3.06 (Posada & Crandall, 1998
). The optimal model (TrNef+
) was then used to estimate the optimal maximum-likelihood (ML) tree, estimating variable parameters from the data where necessary. Neighbour-joining (NJ) bootstrap support (1000 replicates) was calculated for each tree using the ML settings.
Antibody detection.
An optimized concentration of recombinant RHDV protein (Marin et al., 1995 ) was coated onto ELISA plates overnight at 4 °C in coating buffer. After washing the plates in PBSTween (0·1%), twofold dilutions of serum were added for 1 h at 37 °C. The plates were washed and a 1:1000 dilution of polyvalent goat anti-rabbit serum conjugated with horseradish peroxidase (Sigma) was added for 1 h at 37 °C. After washing, substrate was added and the absorbance values of each plate were estimated at 492 nm. Absorbance values equivalent to at least twice the equivalent dilution of negative control serum (serum from a commercially supplied rabbit certified as RHDV-negative) were considered positive for RHDV.
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Results |
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Genetic identity and phylogenetic analysis
The nucleotide sequences of the British isolates were aligned with published sequences, which included the Italian avirulent virus, RCV, and virulent RHDV isolates from Rainham (UK), the Czechoslovakian Republic, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Mexico, New Zealand and the USA. With the exception of a strain of virus from Ashington (UK), which was 21% divergent from the other British viruses, the new isolates showed maximum nucleotide differences of 8%, indicating only limited variation amongst most of the British viruses analysed. The European isolates showed a maximum of 14% difference from the British isolates, Triptis and Braunton Burrows isolates being the most distant. Comparison with sequences from previous British isolates showed that viruses identical to the Ascot-92 virus isolate were circulating at a number of sites in Britain, and the Rainham virus isolate was most similar to the Frankfurt virus isolate. The avirulent Italian virus, RCV, was 19% different from the Ashington virus and 18% different from the other British viruses.
The ML tree for 61 viruses, rooted by RCV and Ashington virus, is shown in Fig. 2. Only viruses that have different sequences are presented in the tree. Virus sequences obtained from healthy rabbits are highlighted in red. Although the tree is monophyletic, there is a significant range of variation between the viruses in the genus. The striking genetic difference between RCV and Ashington virus with each other and also with all the other RHDV viruses implies early divergence, i.e. in the distant past and then a relatively long period of evolution before subsequent divergence to produce the more recently diverged heterogeneous viruses that currently circulate throughout Europe, central East Asia, Australia and New Zealand. For convenience, and using bootstrapping as the basis for separation of the viruses, the tree can be divided into eight major groups, six of which contain viruses from Britain. Group 1 contains two antigenically closely related but genetically distinct viruses, i.e. RCV, the avirulent Italian isolate, and Ashington virus, which was obtained from a wild rabbit within a few hours of death. Ashington virus was found to be genetically distinct (differing by up to 19% nucleotide and 18% amino acid identity) from all other viruses, including RCV, the avirulent isolate reported by Capucci et al. (1996)
. Ashington virus and RCV were used as the out-group in the phylogenetic tree. No other isolates similar to Ashington virus have been identified as yet, even from the same site. Indeed, two other isolates (not shown in Fig. 2
) from this site were similar to the Ascot virus isolate. Group 2 contains the Rainham virus from Britain, together with the German and Italian viruses. Because of low bootstrapping, neither the Meiningen nor the Hagenow virus isolate has been designated a position in group 2 or any other group. Group 3 contains viruses found exclusively in Britain, the earliest isolate in this group being from the serum of a healthy commercially supplied rabbit, the serum of which had been stored at 4 °C since 1959, and the most recent isolate was from a wild dead rabbit collected in the year 2000 (not shown in Fig. 1
). Therefore, virulent and apparently avirulent viruses were not readily distinguishable by phylogenetic analysis of partial capsid sequences. Despite the fact that group 3 viruses were all isolated in Britain, they were dispersed widely throughout the country. Group 4 contains isolates from wild rabbits collected at Ramsey Island and Sandscale on the west coast of Britain and Frensham in southern England; these isolates were closely related to the Wreizen virus isolated in Germany in 1993. In Group 5, the earliest RHDV RNA-positive British isolate was collected in 1955 from the serum of a healthy commercially supplied rabbit kept in Littlehampton, UK. The British isolates in group 6 were from serum samples of healthy commercially supplied rabbits, collected in 1958, 1974 and 1976, and were most closely related to virulent Spanish and French wild rabbit isolates collected in 1989. Group 7 contains isolates from New Zealand and Czechoslovakia, the New Zealand virus being derived from a Czechoslovakian isolate. Group 8 contains two German isolates and a virus that was obtained from the outbreak in the USA in 2000. The only significant geographical grouping of isolates was that seen amongst the group 3 viruses. Otherwise, there was no obvious correlation between geographical location and date of isolation for viruses in groups 3 and 5, each of which contains viruses from widely different areas of Britain. However, the British group 4 isolates were all collected from the same geographical region, west Wales and northwest England, and were similar to the Wreizen virus isolate (isolated in Germany in 1993). The group 6 British isolates were from sera obtained at a single site (Park Farm, Oxford, UK) and were similar to European isolates dating from 1989.
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Serum from healthy wild rabbits captured in 1999 and 2000 contains RHDV RNA
We have shown above that serum from apparently healthy commercially supplied rabbits that had been stored for more than 40 years at 4 °C contained detectable RHDV RNA, as detected by nested RTPCR. These extraordinary results imply that some form of RHDV was circulating harmlessly throughout the commercial rabbit population in Britain during the mid 1950s, i.e. many years before the first recognized outbreak of the disease in China. We therefore decided to test, by RTPCR and sequencing, the sera of healthy wild rabbits marked and re-captured between the years 1999 and 2000 from a variety of field sites. The captured rabbits were bled and then released for re-capture during subsequent months. Positive RTPCR results were obtained and the sequence of the viral RNA in sera from rabbits that seroconverted during the course of the re-capture experiments was very similar to that obtained from fatally infected rabbits. Serum that was positive by RTPCR was also recovered on subsequent re-capture of the same animals. These results show that non-immune rabbits may become infected by potentially virulent RHDV without showing any adverse effects and they then remain healthy but infected for many months.
Healthy rabbits positive for RHDV RNA also contain RHDV-specific antibodies
In separate experiments, serum samples from 10 randomly selected healthy wild adult rabbits from different regions of Britain, which had tested positive by RTPCR, were analysed for the presence of RHDV-specific antibodies by ELISA. Each of the 10 serum samples that tested positive by RTPCR was also positive for antibody by ELISA, whereas approximately 50% of the rabbits tested, which were negative by RTPCR, were also negative by ELISA, implying that a high proportion of healthy immune wild adult rabbits are persistently infected with RHDV. Since these tests were performed on rabbits from field sites where known virulent infections had been reported, it can be assumed either that the healthy rabbits were infected with a potentially virulent virus or that two viruses which have a very similar sequence but significantly different virulence for rabbits are co-circulating in the same rabbit population.
Long-term survival of viral RNA exposed in the natural environment
During the course of these studies, we had demonstrated that the marrow obtained from the bones of dead rabbits collected at various field sites throughout Britain was a reliable source of RHDV RNA. We therefore decided to examine the stability of viral RNA in rabbit bone marrow that had been left exposed to the environment. During June (1999), bones from known RHDV-positive wild rabbits, collected on Ramsey Island, UK, were placed in a protected area of a field and left exposed to the environment. Each week, a tibia or femur containing marrow was taken and analysed by RTPCR and sequencing for the presence of RHDV RNA using the methods described above. Positive results were obtained during each of the first 7 weeks after exposure of the bones. The sequence of the virus from each consecutive sample was identical and corresponds to the Ramsey Island virus seen in Fig. 2. These results demonstrate that RHDV RNA in the marrow of exposed rabbit bones can survive for extended periods in the environment, thus increasing the opportunity for the virus to be spread by animals and birds carrying the bones.
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Discussion |
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Another implication of our results is that RHDV was circulating in Britain, presumably in a relatively innocuous form at least 30 and, on the basis of the phylogenetic tree, probably many more, years before the first recorded RHDV outbreak in China in 1984. Indeed, viruses isolated in Europe, China and Britain have very similar sequences and it is therefore highly likely that RHDV was also circulating throughout Europe at or before this time. Moreover, the intra-clade divergence within groups 3 and 5 represents variation that occurred over 4050 years and many of the lineages have been diverging for much longer than this, i.e. perhaps for hundreds of years. Therefore, since the group 1 viruses clearly show significantly more genetic variation, they must have been diverging for a far longer period of time, i.e. possibly for thousands of years. If we examine the topology of the tree, there was a long time-period between the divergence of group 1 viruses and viruses in groups 28, during which period there were no new lineages isolated, possibly reflecting rabbit population crashes due either to myxomatosis or to other environmental factors. The more intense period of cladogenesis that occurred recently has produced a series of distinct lineages comprising groups 28. This apparently higher rate of variation possibly reflects intense breeding or farming practices, the mobility of domestic rabbits used for meat or as pets, the recovery of wild rabbit populations from the myxomatosis-induced crashes of the 1950s and the capture in one country and subsequent release in other countries, such as Spain and France; this has occurred in recent times. During the past century, commercial movement of rabbits has rapidly accelerated and this shows in the wide range of geographical dispersal of closely related strains within individual genotypes. It is therefore surprising that group 3 in the tree contains only British viruses. However, this could simply reflect the limited range of samples from Europe that have been analysed at this time.
The interpretation of our results can be summarized as follows: (i) RHDV has circulated in Britain and presumably throughout Europe for at least 50 years but probably for a significantly longer period of time; (ii) the sequence data imply that although RHDV is normally associated with highly virulent epidemic outbreaks, it probably circulated harmlessly throughout Europe and possibly parts of Africa and Asia for many centuries or even millennia prior to emerging as a highly pathogenic virus that decimated rabbit populations in Asia and Europe. The factors that determined the apparent alteration in phenotype have not been identified yet; (iii) we have tentatively identified eight phylogenetic groups of RHDV on the basis of serological and sequence data representing part of the VP60 capsid gene demonstrating significant genetic heterogeneity among these viruses; (iv) there is relatively little obvious correlation between individual viruses isolated from particular geographical regions, indicating that they are dispersed very efficiently, probably aided and abetted by human commercial activities and passive transfer by avian and insect species; (v) the re-capture experiments indicate that a significant proportion of rabbits older than 6 weeks with no detectable RHDV-specific antibodies may become infected by RHDV without developing clinical signs of infection; (vi) despite the reported high virulence of RHDV for rabbits, the evidence suggests that virulent viruses or genetically very similar avirulent viruses are capable of persisting in rabbits in the presence of antibody without causing overt disease, since genetic differences between virulent and avirulent RHDV are not immediately apparent from the sequence data obtained thus far; (vii) groups of RHDV strains appear to have evolved to different extents, probably reflecting the different selective pressures to which they have been exposed; (viii) RHDV RNA survives for extended periods of time in the marrow of rabbit bones exposed to field conditions. This form of long-term stability of viral RNA may contribute significantly to the success with which the virus spreads and persists in the environment.
Clearly, a long-term series of experiments will need to be performed in vivo before many of the above suppositions can be confirmed but the data suggest that the virulence of RHDV for rabbits may not be defined simply by unique genetic determinants in the virus. However, until complete genome sequences have been determined for a significant number of virulent and apparently avirulent viruses, it will not be possible to test this hypothesis.
It is perhaps significant that another pathogenic virus for rabbits, i.e. myxoma virus, was first reported in an epidemic form in Britain in the 1950s. As far as we are aware, the impact of this virus on RHDV epidemiology has not been assessed and, to date, there have been no significant comparative molecular or serological studies between myxoma virus and RHDV in rabbit populations. Whether or not death rates due to RHDV could be influenced by the presence of myxoma virus in the same animals needs to be assessed. This type of analysis will form the basis of our future research.
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Footnotes |
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a Present address: Department of Neurovirology, National Institute of Mental Health and Neuroscience, Post bag no. 2900, Bangalore 560029, India.
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References |
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Received 19 December 2001;
accepted 31 May 2002.