Abstract
Ranaviruses can infect many vertebrate classes including fish, amphibians and reptiles, but for the most part, research has been focused on non-reptilian hosts, amphibians in particular. More recently, reports of ranaviral infections of reptiles are increasing with over 12 families of reptiles currently susceptible to ranaviral infection. Reptiles are infected by ranaviruses that are genetically similar to, or the same as, the viruses that infect amphibians and fish; however, physiological and ecological differences result in differences in study designs. Although ranaviral disease in reptiles is often influenced by host species, viral strain and environmental differences, general trends in pathogenesis are emerging. More experimental studies using a variety of reptile species, life stages and routes of transmission are required to unravel the complexity of wild ranavirus transmission. Further, our understanding of the reptilian immune response to ranaviral infection is still lacking, although the considerable amount of work conducted in amphibians will serve as a useful guide for future studies in reptiles.
Highlights
INTRODUCTIONRanaviruses (family Iridoviridae) are emerging lethal pathogens of ectothermic vertebrates
Ranaviruses are emerging lethal pathogens of ectothermic vertebrates
The most commonly used methods to confirm the presence of a ranavirus in host samples have included electron microscopy, enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISAs), viral isolation, immunohistochemistry (IHC), DNA amplification using polymerase chain reaction (PCR), and more recently, generation sequencing
Summary
Ranaviruses (family Iridoviridae) are emerging lethal pathogens of ectothermic vertebrates. The vast majority of research on the genus Ranavirus has been conducted in amphibians (Rana is Latin for frog), but despite their name, ranaviruses do not occur only in amphibians (Chinchar & Waltzek, 2014). This group of viruses infects over 175 species of ectothermic vertebrates; including reptile species from at least 12 different families (Duffus et al, 2015). It is important to focus efforts on all Classes of hosts, including reptiles. We identify major gaps in this field of knowledge and include recommendations for future research directions
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