Occupation-Associated Fatal Limbic Encephalitis Caused by Variegated Squirrel Bornavirus 1, Germany, 2013.

ABSTRACT: Limbic encephalitis is commonly regarded as an autoimmune-mediated disease. However, after the recent detection of zoonotic variegated squirrel bornavirus 1 in a Prevost's squirrel (Callosciurus prevostii) in a zoo in northern Germany, we retrospectively investigated a fatal case in an autoantibody-seronegative animal caretaker who had worked at that zoo. The virus had been discovered in 2015 as the cause of a cluster of cases of fatal encephalitis among breeders of variegated squirrels (Sciurus variegatoides) in eastern Germany. Molecular assays and immunohistochemistry detected a limbic distribution of the virus in brain tissue of the animal caretaker. Phylogenetic analyses demonstrated a spillover infection from the Prevost's squirrel. Antibodies against bornaviruses were detected in th

SUBMITTER: Tappe D 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6004865 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature