THE ENCEPHALOMYOCARDITIS VIRUS (EMCV) AND ITS ZOONOTIC POTENTIAL (A Literature Review) PART I. MODERN VIEWS ON THE EMCV STRUCTURE AND ITS VIRAL CYCLE

Abstract

There have been a growing number of the outbreaks of human diseases with typical zoonotic infections, which have previously occurred exclusively in veterinary practice. Among them is monkeypox, whose first occurrence outside the African continent was registered in the USA in the spring of 2003. An important factor contributing to the penetration of infections into the human population is a close contact of people with fauna representatives in the context of intensively growing cities. Therefore, research into new zoonotic diseases, which are potentially dangerous to humans, seems to be critically important. Thus, retrospective studies carried out among the Peru population in 2009 revealed the cases of the encephalomyocarditis virus (EMCV) (Picornaviridae family, Cardiovirus genus) infection in people having suffered from acute febrile illness. A new virus strain belonging to the same genus was described during the infection outbreak among primates of the Sukhumi Monkey nursery (Republic of Abkhazia) in 1990–1999. This strain was also identified during the outbreak among the monkeys of the Primatological Centre in the Krasnodar Krai in 2012. In this review, we generalize the data available on the structure, virulence factors and distribution of EMCV.