Animal Retroviruses Important to both Veterinary Medicine and Human Health

Dear Colleagues,

Animal retroviruses play an important role in both veterinary medicine and human health. Some of the non-rodent animal retroviruses serve as animal models of retrovirus-induced human diseases, whereas some others affect the food animal industries. These animal retroviruses infect their respective host(s) to cause diseases similar to those in humans caused by human retroviruses. The majority of animal retroviruses do not infect humans, except for the simian retroviruses (e.g., simian immunodeficiency virus, SIV). Cases of accidental infection with SIV have been reported in laboratory workers but little has been reported about their treatment and long-term health status. The feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV) infection of domestic cats and the SIV infection of Asian macaques belong to the genus Lentivirus, and like human immunodeficiency viruses (HIV), cause acquired immunodeficiency diseases (AIDSs) in their respective host, and serve as animal models for HIV-1 and HIV-2 infection of humans. Such models are used to identify effective vaccine designs and novel antiretroviral therapies for a cure to benefit both veterinary/zoo-animal medicine and human health. Based on the morphology and sequence similarity, bovine leukemia virus (BLV) belongs to the genus Deltaretrovirus, the same as the human T-lymphotropic virus type 1 (HTLV-1), whereas feline leukemia virus (FeLV) belongs to the genus Gammaretrovirus. All of these retroviruses cause leukemia or lymphoma in their respective hosts. In fact, FeLV infection of cats and BLV infection of cattle and cows serve as animal models of HTLV-1 infection of humans, and are used to identify vaccine designs and approaches for eradicating such infections in their host population. This Special Issue serves as a forum to discuss new discoveries and update current findings regarding non-rodent retroviral animal models of retrovirus-induced human diseases, with specific emphasis on vaccine development and novel antiretroviral therapies for a cure.

The bovine leukemia (BLV) and immunodeficiency (BIV) virus infections of cattle and dairy cows can incur a major toll on the beef and dairy industries by causing mortality, reduced reproductive efficiency, weight loss, reduced milk productivity, increased veterinary costs, and ineligibility to export live cattle, semen, and ova to other countries which have BLV and/or BIV control programs. The caprine arthritis encephalitis (CAEV) and maedi-visna (MVV) virus infections of goats and sheep serve as the other sources of red meat for human consumption, and similarly incur economic losses to meat and dairy (CAEV) industries. If not rigorously screened, controlled, and inactivated or removed from human consumption, these animal retroviruses in food animals may eventually affect the safety of human health. Thus, recent findings regarding the spread and control of such retroviral infections in food animal hosts worldwide and their impact on human consumption and health are important considerations to update in this Special Issue.

Prof. Janet K. Yamamoto
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Vaccines is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• BLV
• BIV
• CAEV
• MVV
• FeLV
• FIV
• SIV
• retroviral vaccine
• retroviral therapy
• cure