A strain of calicivirus isolated from lions with vesicular lesions on tongue and snout.

In December 1992, 17 African lions and 7 Siberian tigers in a Safari park in Japan became sick with characteristic clinical symptoms of acute vesicular formations on tongue and snout. The disease was highly contagious since all of these animals showed similar symptoms within two days after the onset of the first case. Swabs were taken from affected animals in rubbing tongues, snouts and some from rectums. Cytopathic viruses were isolated on CRFK cell culture by virological tests. The physicochemical property of a representative virus strain, named Arthur/L, isolated from a male lion was identified as a member of Caliciviridae. However, seroneutralization test indicated that this virus strain was antigenically distinct from Japanese isolates of feline caliciviruses used for comparison. Viral capsid proteins of the present isolate, Arthur/L, and of a feline calicivirus, strain FC7, were compared in an electrophoresis in SDS-PAGE gel. The major viral capsid polypeptide of them were proved to be significantly different in molecular weight. The polypeptide of FC7 was estimated to be ca. 63 KDa whereas that of Arthur/L consisted of 2 components of ca. 65 and 62 KDa. The viral proteins of these two strains were also proved to be distinct by an immunoblotting test.