Richard lll, DNA, Cold Cases and Circovirus

A strange heading for a strange situation.

Zoonotic disease, that's an animal disease spreading to humans, has largely been an international blame game, with all nations and their often nationalistic farming communities seeking to escape blame and responsibility, by claiming it is all a "foreign" disease, illegally crossing their borders.

So the game was: hide up your own disease and headline everyone else's problems  - blame someone else, preferably a competitor and innocent.

This not very edifying blame game is now yesterday's fraud. Developments in England mark the way.

Few if us could ever expect that the body of King Richard lll, the last King of England to be killed in battle over 500 years ago, would be found and then identified by DNA analysis. We now know he was indeed crippled and the nature of his illness, something we could never have expected to know.

Many other mysteries are being solved.  A well in a new shopping mall, was excavated not far from the writer in Norwich, and the gathered scientists were moved to tears, when the announcement was made to an expectant group on TV. Their worst fears were realised. All the bodies, adult and children, had Jewish DNA - evidence of a medieval pogrom in England's green and pleasant land.

New science is daily unravelling mysteries and scandals their perpetrators thought hidden for ever.

We know that Porcine Circovirus was in Britain immediately before the disastrous Classical Swine Fever, and Foot and Mouth epidemics of 2000 and 2001. It was not called Porcine Circovirus then, and it has had many changes of names, usually for public relation's purposes, since.

Its creation and spread became a problem that the veterinary industry probably thought safely buried, even though the repercussions batter animal and human health ever since, not least the Superbug Crisis.

Antibiotics are needed to deal with the constant co-infections.

But now the bodies of forgotten deceptions are being exhumed.

The Italians are rushing to plug the gaps.

The source at PubFacts can be found here.


INT INTERNATIONAL TRADES, LOCAL SPREAD AND VIRAL EVOLUTION: THE CASE
OF PORCINE CIRCOVIRUS TYPE 2 (PCV2) STRAINS HETEROGENEITY IN ITALY.
2015Apr

International trades, local spread and viral evolution: the case of
Porcine circovirus type 2 (PCV2) strains heterogeneity in Italy.
Infect. Genet. Evol.
Infect Genet Evol 2015 Apr 6. Epub 2015 Apr 6.
Franzo Giovanni, Tucciarone Claudia M, Dotto Giorgia, Gigli
Alessandra, Ceglie Letizia, Drigo Michele
"

Porcine circovirus type 2 is one of the most widespread and economically relevant infections of swine. Four genotypes have been recognized, but currently, only three (PCV2a, PCV2b and PCV2d) are effectively circulating. The widespread livestock trade and rapid viral evolution have contributed to determining the high heterogeneity of PCV2 and the dispersal of potentially more virulent strains.
Italian swine farming and the related processing industry are relevant in the national economy.

Despite the noteworthy losses associated with direct and control measure costs, no data are currently available on the molecular epidemiology of PCV2 in Italy. Our study, which was intended to fill this gap, considered 75 completed genome PCV2 sequences, which were obtained from samples collected from the highly densely populated area of Northern Italy between 2007 and 2014.
Phylogenetic analysis and comparison with reference sequences demonstrated the co-circulation, with different prevalences, of PCV2a, PCV2b and PCV2d within the national borders, with PCV2b being the most  prevalent. Recombination between different genotypes was also proven to be frequent. Phylogeographic analysis demonstrated that the marked variability of Italian PCV2 strains can be attributable to multiple introduction events. The comparison of the phylogenetic analysis results, the location of different haplotypes and the international commercial routs of live pigs allow the speculation of several links as well as the role of Italy as both an importer and exporter of PCV2
haplotypes, mainly from and to European and Asian countries. A similarly intricate contact network was demonstrated within national borders, with different haplotypes being detected in the same province and different provinces harbouring the same haplotype.

Overall, this paper represents the first description of PCV2 in Italy and demonstrates that the high variability of circulating Italian strains is due to multiple introduction events, wide circulation within
national boundaries and rapid viral evolution.

Affiliation
Department of Animal Medicine, Production and Health (MAPS), University of Padua, Viale dell'Università 16, 35020 Legnaro (PD), Italy.NATIONAL TRADES, LOCAL SPREAD AND VIRAE