Seroepidemiology, molecular characterization and establishing prophylactic approaches against the Bovine Ephemeral fever virus

Abstract

Viruses are obligate intracellular parasites that are sub-microscopic in size and infects bacteria, plants, animals and humans. Being the most numerous forms of biological agents, they reside in almost every ecosystem on earth and require very simple components for its propagation and acclimatisation. These infectious agents possesstheir own genetic material, either DNA or RNA and utilises host’s components to reproduce themselves. The major critical elements required by the virus are, first its genome that needs to be transmitted at every generation and second, a messenger RNA that enable viral protein synthesis. The viruses exhibit variety of sizes, shapes and genetic strategies. Viral infection is initiated when the proteins on a virion 's surface bind to host cell surface specific receptor proteins. The host range of a virus is determined by the specificity of this encounter. An increasingly intertwined and globalised platform, bolster the rapid viral emergence that poses a significant threat to local, national and global public health. Many of these newly emerging and re-emerging viruses are arboviruses such as dengue, chikungunya, West Nile virus, bluetongue viruses, Japanese encephalitis, Yellow fever and Zika virus, all of which have recently showed their significant impacts in new regions of the world asthe geographical range of their vectors have expanded. Apartfrom the zoonotic viruses, epizootic viruses also hold significant impact on non-human population especially, livestock and contribute a great share towards the global economy, thus establishing themselves as creatures of prime importance and should not be overlooked.