In action-an early warning system for the detection of unexpected or novel pathogens.

Proactive approaches in preventing future epidemics include pathogen discovery prior to their emergence in human and/or animal populations. Playing an important role in pathogen discovery, high-throughput sequencing (HTS) enables the characterization of microbial and viral genetic diversity within a given sample. In particular, metagenomic HTS allows the unbiased taxonomic profiling of sequences; hence, it can identify novel and highly divergent pathogens such as viruses.

Sus scrofa papillomavirus 2 - genetic characterization of a novel suid papillomavirus from wild boar in Germany.

We identified a novel papillomavirus, Sus scrofa papillomavirus 2 (SsPV2), which is the first papillomavirus associated with papillomas in pigs. In skin alterations of a German wild boar, showing typical gross and histological appearance of papillomas, papillomavirus-like particles were demonstrated by electron microscopy. Degenerate papillomavirus-specific primers were used to amplify and sequence parts of the viral DNA.