( >There are assays available to test for...)Ocean virus identified in human blood samples

"AVI BioPharma has investigated their proprietary NeuGene antisense as an anti-Vesiviral treatment, and is currently conducting further research and development," said Patrick Iversen, a co-author on the study and senior vice president of research and development at the company.

Researchers say that Vesivirus has natural reservoirs in the marine community where it can replicate and recycle, infecting and sometimes causing health problems in seals, sea lions, whales, and perhaps fish, shellfish and other species. In general, the marine environment is "a relatively under-explored potential reservoir of human pathogens," the researchers said in their study.

History suggests these viruses have rarely been confined to the ocean. A costly Vesivirus epidemic in hogs first was identified in 1932, and was found to be linked to uncooked fish and pork scraps fed to hogs. It's now known that that the same types of Vesiviruses ?named in part for the disease they can cause in hogs, vesicular exanthema of swine - are found in many other species.

In a research article published in January in the American Journal of Veterinary Research, the same scientists found that 15 percent of the dairy and beef cattle in eight western states had antibodies to Vesivirus, with antibody prevalence in various herds ranging from zero to 80 percent. It concluded that Vesivirus infection in cattle is widespread, and in various studies has been "associated" ?identified to be statistically relevant but not yet proven as a cause - with abortion, diarrhea, severe respiratory disease and vesicular disease.

In another study to be published soon, a population of Thoroughbred mares on horse farms in Kentucky, which was having an unusually high level of spontaneous abortions, was also found to have 81 percent positi
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Source:Oregon State University