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Effects of Mustelid gammaherpesvirus 1 (MusGHV-1) Reactivation in European Badger (Meles meles) Genital Tracts on Reproductive Fitness

Reactivation of latent Gammaherpesvirus in the genital tract can lead to reproductive failure in domestic animals. Nevertheless, this pathophysiology has not received formal study in wild mammals. High prevalence of Mustelid gammaherpesvirus 1 (MusGHV-1) DNA detected in the genital tracts of Europea...

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Autores principales: Tsai, Ming-shan, Fogarty, Ursula, Byrne, Andrew W., O’Keeffe, James, Newman, Chris, Macdonald, David W., Buesching, Christina D.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7559395/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32962280
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/pathogens9090769
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author Tsai, Ming-shan
Fogarty, Ursula
Byrne, Andrew W.
O’Keeffe, James
Newman, Chris
Macdonald, David W.
Buesching, Christina D.
author_facet Tsai, Ming-shan
Fogarty, Ursula
Byrne, Andrew W.
O’Keeffe, James
Newman, Chris
Macdonald, David W.
Buesching, Christina D.
author_sort Tsai, Ming-shan
collection PubMed
description Reactivation of latent Gammaherpesvirus in the genital tract can lead to reproductive failure in domestic animals. Nevertheless, this pathophysiology has not received formal study in wild mammals. High prevalence of Mustelid gammaherpesvirus 1 (MusGHV-1) DNA detected in the genital tracts of European badgers (Meles meles) implies that this common pathogen may be a sexual transmitted infection. Here we used PCR to test MusGHV-1 DNA prevalence in genital swabs collected from 144 wild badgers in Ireland (71 males, 73 females) to investigate impacts on male fertility indicators (sperm abundance and testes weight) and female fecundity (current reproductive output). MusGHV-1 reactivation had a negative effect on female reproduction, but not on male fertility; however males had a higher risk of MusGHV-1 reactivation than females, especially during the late-winter mating season, and genital MusGHV-1 reactivation differed between age classes, where 3–5 year old adults had significantly lower reactivation rates than younger or older ones. Negative results in foetal tissues from MusGHV-1 positive mothers indicated that cross-placental transmission was unlikely. This study has broader implications for how wide-spread gammaherpesvirus infections could affect reproductive performance in wild Carnivora species.
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spelling pubmed-75593952020-10-26 Effects of Mustelid gammaherpesvirus 1 (MusGHV-1) Reactivation in European Badger (Meles meles) Genital Tracts on Reproductive Fitness Tsai, Ming-shan Fogarty, Ursula Byrne, Andrew W. O’Keeffe, James Newman, Chris Macdonald, David W. Buesching, Christina D. Pathogens Article Reactivation of latent Gammaherpesvirus in the genital tract can lead to reproductive failure in domestic animals. Nevertheless, this pathophysiology has not received formal study in wild mammals. High prevalence of Mustelid gammaherpesvirus 1 (MusGHV-1) DNA detected in the genital tracts of European badgers (Meles meles) implies that this common pathogen may be a sexual transmitted infection. Here we used PCR to test MusGHV-1 DNA prevalence in genital swabs collected from 144 wild badgers in Ireland (71 males, 73 females) to investigate impacts on male fertility indicators (sperm abundance and testes weight) and female fecundity (current reproductive output). MusGHV-1 reactivation had a negative effect on female reproduction, but not on male fertility; however males had a higher risk of MusGHV-1 reactivation than females, especially during the late-winter mating season, and genital MusGHV-1 reactivation differed between age classes, where 3–5 year old adults had significantly lower reactivation rates than younger or older ones. Negative results in foetal tissues from MusGHV-1 positive mothers indicated that cross-placental transmission was unlikely. This study has broader implications for how wide-spread gammaherpesvirus infections could affect reproductive performance in wild Carnivora species. MDPI 2020-09-20 /pmc/articles/PMC7559395/ /pubmed/32962280 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/pathogens9090769 Text en © 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Tsai, Ming-shan
Fogarty, Ursula
Byrne, Andrew W.
O’Keeffe, James
Newman, Chris
Macdonald, David W.
Buesching, Christina D.
Effects of Mustelid gammaherpesvirus 1 (MusGHV-1) Reactivation in European Badger (Meles meles) Genital Tracts on Reproductive Fitness
title Effects of Mustelid gammaherpesvirus 1 (MusGHV-1) Reactivation in European Badger (Meles meles) Genital Tracts on Reproductive Fitness
title_full Effects of Mustelid gammaherpesvirus 1 (MusGHV-1) Reactivation in European Badger (Meles meles) Genital Tracts on Reproductive Fitness
title_fullStr Effects of Mustelid gammaherpesvirus 1 (MusGHV-1) Reactivation in European Badger (Meles meles) Genital Tracts on Reproductive Fitness
title_full_unstemmed Effects of Mustelid gammaherpesvirus 1 (MusGHV-1) Reactivation in European Badger (Meles meles) Genital Tracts on Reproductive Fitness
title_short Effects of Mustelid gammaherpesvirus 1 (MusGHV-1) Reactivation in European Badger (Meles meles) Genital Tracts on Reproductive Fitness
title_sort effects of mustelid gammaherpesvirus 1 (musghv-1) reactivation in european badger (meles meles) genital tracts on reproductive fitness
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7559395/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32962280
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/pathogens9090769
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