An attenuated smallpox vaccine protects camels against
camelpox. There is a vaccine for elephantpox that is a live attenuated vaccine.
The gene sequence alignments of selected representative human pathogenic orthopoxviruses and
camelpox virus, the most closely related to variola virus (18) are shown in Fig.
Al-Manal: Foot-and-Mouth Disease vaccine facility, also research on viral warfare agents including: haemorraghic conjunctivitis, human rota virus, and
camelpox. The site was also used to produce thousands of litres of botulinum toxin
Iraqi bioweapons specialists are known to have been working with the
camelpox virus, which may be used as a surrogate for research on smallpox therapies and vaccines and for the development of the smallpox virus as a weapon.
Researchers have found
camelpox is so similar to smallpox that only a small change in its genes would make it deadly.
Iraq's research into viruses - including polio, influenza, foot and mouth disease, the
camelpox virus, infectious haemorrhagic conjunctivitis virus and rotavirus - was also worrying.
Some facilities were left intact; Daura's vaccine production is essential for livestock survival in the region, though evidence later revealed that there was also research on viral warfare agents (including hemorrhagic conjunctivitis, human rotavirus and
camelpox).
North Korea is the only country about which reliable intelligence for smallpox proliferation exists, but there are suspicions about other countries, and many government experts are particularly troubled by the implications of work done in Iraq with
camelpox, a virus which can serve as a stand-in for smallpox.
anthracis, rotavirus,
camelpox virus, aflatoxin, C.
Another concern is the zoonotic potential of some OPXVs, such as monkeypox virus,
camelpox virus, buffalopox virus, and cowpox virus (CPXV) (2,3).
We evaluated the specificity of the PPV real-time PCR assay by use of DNA from several viruses, including orthopoxviruses (vaccinia, cowpox, monkeypox, ectromelia, and
camelpox virus), molluscum contagiosum virus, yaba-like disease virus, human herpesviruses types 1 to 8, and adenoviruses.
The inspectors were dubious because
camelpox does not cause human disease, said New Scientist.
The 6 orthopoxviruses variola virus, vaccinia virus (VACV),
camelpox virus, monkeypox virus, ECTV, and CPXV are recognized as originating from the Eurasian continent and are referred to as Old World orthopoxviruses (6).
The PCR assay did not cross-react with herpes simplex virus types 1 and 2, Epstein-Barr virus, cytomegalovirus, HHV-6 A and B, HHV-7, HHV-8, simian virus 40, parvovirus B19,
camelpox, cowpox, modified vaccinia virus Ankara (MVA), or 3 clinical samples that were PCR-positive for transfusion-transmitted virus (data not shown).
