Paramyxoviruses of Animals

Paramyxoviruses (some of which are also called parainfluenza viruses) cause a wide variety of diseases in animals. Many paramyxoviruses cause primarily respiratory disease, while others cause serious systemic disease. Many diseases caused by animal paramyxoviruses also have a neurological component or a reproductive disease component. Several of the most devastating diseases of animals, such as rinderpest, Newcastle disease, and canine distemper, are caused by paramyxoviruses. Some of the animal paramyxoviruses, such as the Hendra and Nipah viruses, are emerging zoonotic pathogens of major public health concern. New paramyxoviruses are being isolated on a continuing basis from a wide variety of animals. All animal paramyxoviruses belong to the family Paramyxoviridae. The members of this virus family are enveloped and have genomes consisting of a single segment of negative-sense RNA that contains 6–10 genes encoding up to 12 proteins. Although there are many animal paramyxoviruses, only a few effective vaccines are currently available. In the last decade, methods of producing many animal paramyxoviruses entirely from cDNA clones (reverse genetics) have been developed. This has not only greatly improved our understanding of the molecular biology and pathogenesis of these viruses, but has also made it possible to engineer improved vaccines for them.