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Infection with recombinant orf viruses demonstrates that the viral interleukin-10 is a virulence factor

¹ Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand
² Moredun Research Institute, Pentlands Science Park, Bush Loan, Penicuik EH26 0PZ, UK

Correspondence
David M. Haig
david.haig{at}moredun.ac.uk

Orf virus is the prototype parapoxvirus that causes the contagious skin disease orf. It encodes an orthologue of the cytokine interleukin (IL)-10. Recombinant orf viruses were constructed in which the viral interleukin-10 (vorfIL-10) was disabled (vorfIL-10ko) and reinserted (vorfrevIL-10) at the same locus and compared to wild-type virus for their ability to induce skin lesions in sheep. After either primary infection or reinfection, smaller less severe lesions were recorded in the vorfIL-10ko-infected animals compared with either of the vorfIL-10-intact virus-infected animals. Thus, the vorfIL-10ko virus was attenuated compared with the vorfIL-10 intact viruses, demonstrating that orf virus IL-10 is a virulence factor. The virus IL-10 is one of several virulence or immuno-modulatory factors expressed by orf virus. Removal of any one of these genes would be expected to have only a partial effect on virulence, which is what was observed in this study with vorfIL-10.

A supplementary figure is available with the online version of this paper.

This article has been cited by other articles:

				B. Slobedman, P. A. Barry, J. V. Spencer, S. Avdic, and A. Abendroth Virus-Encoded Homologs of Cellular Interleukin-10 and Their Control of Host Immune Function J. Virol., October 1, 2009; 83(19): 9618 - 9629. [Full Text] [PDF]