Published in Scientific Works. Series C. Veterinary Medicine, Vol. LXII, Issue 1
Written by Doina DANES, Dan ENACHE, Dragos COBZARIU, Stelian BARAITAREANU
RLVs are retroviruses belonging to the genus Lentivirus (subfamily Orthoretrovirinae). The earliest report of a disease whose pathological pattern suggest the SRLV infection was in Nederland, in 1862. Since then, several reports of clinical cases and scientific research, proved the wide dissemination of SRLV infections (Maedi-Visna in sheep and Caprine Arthritis-Encephalitis in goats) throughout all countries with large number of sheep and goats. In 1998, it was published a phylogenetic analysis of SRLV and it was proved the cross-species transmission of CAEV and MVV strains; moreover, in 2010, phylogenetic reconstructions supported the existence of SRLV cross-species transmission between domestic and wild small ruminants. SRLVs is a genetic continuum of lentiviral species (MVV, CAEV) in sheep and goats with evidence based of cross species transmission. The high genetic variability of SRLV, generate the classification of the viral genotypes into five groups and several subtypes, based on the phylogenetic analysis of two long genomic segments: the gag-pol segment (1.8 kb) and the pol segment (1.2 kb). Pathogenesis of lentiviral infections is the result of several particular factors, as the virus strain, the genetics of the host and the microenvironment. All this are influencing the tropism of lentivirus to a particular host animal or cell, tissue or organ. Till present, despite the huge and increasing speed in bio technics, the pathogenesis of SRLV infections, either in goat or in sheep, is not completely understood and the interaction of the host with those viruses is not fully known.
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