Identification of a new strain of the respiratory virus in the green iguana (Iguana iguana)

Recently, nidoviruses have been described as a possible cause of severe respiratory diseases in reptiles and especially pythons from different parts of the world. The aim of this study is to isolate the pathogenic agent along with the precise determination of its characteristics and to examine the histopathological findings in a female iguana. During the iguana post-mortem examination, pyogranulomatous and fibronecrotic lesions were observed in various organs other than the respiratory system, and the results of the reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction were also positive. Therefore, the relationship between the observation of these extensive lesions and the Necropsy findings obtained from Previous cases of serpanovirus infection and the amount and type of changes in the genome of the serpentovirus identified with the previous serpentovirus were investigated. Cell culture inoculation and then RT-PCR was used to collect and obtain the virus isolate. Next, immunohistochemistry was performed. Staining for the nucleoprotein of the serpentine virus showed that this virus infects not only a wide range of epithelia (respiratory and gastrointestinal epithelium, hepatocytes, urinary tubules, pancreatic ducts, etc.), but also contaminates the intravascular monocytes, intralesional macrophages, and endothelial cells too. With next-generation sequencing, the complete genome for this new serpentine virus species was obtained.The analysis of the viral genome recovered from this respiratory and systemic disease associated with serpentine virus infection did not show a sequence correlation with the phenotype of other strains. The results showed that this serpentine virus has a wide cell and tissue tropism, and the course of infection by it can be different, and as a result of the systemic spread of the virus in the body, it causes lesions in a wide range of different body systems.