Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 14
Insights into the
Caliciviridae
Family
Grant Hansman
*
Introduction
The family
Caliciviridae
contains four genera,
Norovirus
,
Sapovirus
,
Lagovirus
, and
Vesivirus
, which include norovirus (NoV), sapovirus
(SaV), rabbit hemorrhagic disease virus (RHDV), and feline cali-
civirus (FCV) strains, respectively. Human NoV, previously known as
small-round structured viruses (SRSV) or Norwalk-like viruses
(NLVs), is the leading cause of gastroenteritis in the world. The pro-
totype strain of human NoV, the Norwalk virus (Hu/NV/Norwalk
virus/1968/US), was first discovered from an outbreak of gastroen-
teritis in an elementary school in Norwalk, Ohio, USA, in 1968.
1
Human SaV strains are thought to mostly infect infants, occasionally
causing outbreaks of gastroenteritis.
2-4
The prototype strain of human
SaV, the Sapporo virus (Hu/SV/Sapporo virus/1977/JP), was orig-
inally discovered from an outbreak in a home for infants in Sapporo,
Japan, in 1977.
5
Most animal caliciviruses are grouped within the
other two genera.
Vesivirus
and
Lagovirus
cause a variety of diseases,
such as gastroenteritis, vesicular lesions, respiratory infections, repro-
ductive failure, and hemorrhagic disease.
*National Institute of Infectious Diseases, Tokyo.
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