From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Cardioviruses belong to the family of viruses known as Picornaviridae and a typical cardiovirus species is the encephalomyocarditis virus. Cardioviruses infect vertebrates. The virion is non-enveloped and contains a strand on positive sense, single stranded RNA. The virion shows icosahedral symmetry and is around 30nm in diameter. The 3’ end of the genome encodes a polyA tail while the 5’ end encodes a genome linked protein.
In the case of encephalomyocarditis virus, the virus can cause encephalitis and myocarditis, mostly in rodents, which are natural hosts. The virus is transmitted from rodents to other animals. Severe epidemics have been seen in swine and elephants.[1]
[edit] References
- ^ Fenner FJ. Gibbs EPJ, Murphy FA, Rott R, Studdert MJ, White, DO (1993). Veterinary Virology (2nd ed.). Academic Press, Inc. ISBN 0-12-253056-X.
