Papillomavirus infection of roe deer in the Czech Republic and fibropapilloma-associated levels of metallothionein, zinc, and oxidative stress

Král, Jiří; Banďouchová, Hana; Brichta, Jiří; Kováčová, Veronika; Ondráček, Karel; Osičková, Jitka; Hrubá, Hana; Hutařová, Zdeňka; Komínková, Markéta; Cernei, Natalia; Konečná, Marie; Tmejová, Kateřina; Zítka, Ondřej; Adam, Vojtěch; Kizek, René; Škorič, Miša; Tremlová, Bohuslava; Treml, František; Pikula, Jiří

doi:10.2754/avb201584020105

Acta Veterinaria > Archive > 2015, Vol. 84 > Issue 2 > Papillomavirus infection of roe deer in…

Acta Vet. Brno 2015, 84: 105-111

https://doi.org/10.2754/avb201584020105

Papillomavirus infection of roe deer in the Czech Republic and fibropapilloma-associated levels of metallothionein, zinc, and oxidative stress

Jiří Král¹, Hana Banďouchová¹, Jiří Brichta¹, Veronika Kováčová¹, Karel Ondráček¹, Jitka Osičková¹, Hana Hrubá¹, Zdeňka Hutařová², Markéta Komínková³, Natalia Cernei³, Marie Konečná³, Kateřina Tmejová³, Ondřej Zítka¹, Vojtěch Adam³, René Kizek³, Miša Škorič⁴, Bohuslava Tremlová⁵, František Treml⁶, Jiří Pikula¹

¹University of Veterinary and Pharmaceutical Sciences Brno, Faculty of Veterinary Hygiene and Ecology, Department of Ecology and Diseases of Game, Fish and Bees, Brno, Czech Republic
²University of Veterinary and Pharmaceutical Sciences Brno, Faculty of Veterinary Hygiene and Ecology, Department of Veterinary Public Health and Animal Welfare, Brno, Czech Republic
³University of Technology, Central European Institute of Technology, Brno, Czech Republic
⁴University of Veterinary and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Department of Pathological Morphology and Parasitology, Brno, Czech Republic
⁵University of Veterinary and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Faculty of Veterinary Hygiene and Ecology, Department of Vegetable Foodstuffs Hygiene and Technology, Brno, Czech Republic
⁶University of Veterinary and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Department of Infectious Diseases and Microbiology, Brno, Czech Republic

Received August 24, 2014
Accepted January 14, 2015

The present study aimed at the aetiological diagnosis of skin tumours of roe deer (Capreolus capreolus) in the Czech Republic. A total of 33 roe deer specimens showing skin masses were sampled for histopathology, virus detection and identification using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and deoxyribonucleic acid sequence (DNA) analysis, and to investigate fibropapilloma-associated levels of metallothionein, zinc and oxidative stress in 2012 and 2013. Ticks (Ixodes ricinus) and deer keds (Lipoptena cervi) were also collected and pooled from sampled game specimens. Ticks found on dogs in hunting grounds under study were pooled into another sample. Skin tumours, ranging from 2 to 10 per inspected specimen and 2 to 5 cm in size, were classified as fibropapillomas by histopathology. All 33 viral-infection-suspected skin samples from roe deer in South Moravia and South Bohemia were PCR positive. The nucleotide sequences of PCR products were 100% homologous to the Western roe deer papillomavirus 1 isolate CcPV-1. Ticks and deer keds from positive roe deer and ticks from dogs were PCR and DNA sequence positive for the roe deer papillomavirus. Viral DNA was also demonstrated in one blood sample from a roe deer female. Differences in metallothionein, zinc, taurine and electrochemical index among samples from lesions and normal skin of affected roe deer and negative controls from papillomavirus-non-infected animals were non-significant. While we have demonstrated circulation of specific roe deer papillomavirus in the Czech Republic that results in multiple fibropapillomatous skin tumours, many ecological and epidemiological issues of this wildlife disease still remain unanswered.