Electron micrograph of three Cowpox virus particles
Virus classification
(unranked):
Virus
Realm:
Varidnaviria
Kingdom:
Bamfordvirae
Phylum:
Nucleocytoviricota
Class:
Pokkesviricetes
Order:
Chitovirales
Family:
Poxviridae
Genus:
Orthopoxvirus
Species:
Cowpox virus
Medical condition
Cowpox
Cowpox lesions on patient's forearm on day 7 after onset of illness. The hemagglutinin gene of the isolate clustered with a Russian cowpox virus strain, and the more distantly, with other cowpox and vaccinia virus strains. The patient's dog had orthopoxvirus-specific antibodies, indicating a possible transmission route.[1]
Specialty
Infectious diseases, veterinary medicine
Cowpox is an infectious disease caused by the cowpox virus (CPXV).[2] It presents with large blisters in the skin, a fever and swollen glands, historically typically following contact with an infected cow, though in the last several decades more often (though overall rarely) from infected cats.[3] The hands and face are most frequently affected and the spots are generally very painful.[4]
The virus, part of the genus Orthopoxvirus, is closely related to the vaccinia virus. The virus is zoonotic, meaning that it is transferable between species, such as from cat to human. The transferral of the disease was first observed in dairy workers who touched the udders of infected cows and consequently developed the signature pustules on their hands.[5] Cowpox is more commonly found in animals other than bovines, such as rodents. Cowpox is similar to, but much milder than, the highly contagious and often deadly smallpox disease.[5] Its close resemblance to the mild form of smallpox and the observation that dairy farmers[6] were immune to smallpox inspired the modern smallpox vaccine, created and administered by English physician Edward Jenner.[7]
The first description of cowpox was given by Jenner in 1798.[8] "Vaccination" is derived from the Latin adjective vaccinus, meaning "of or from the cow".[9] Once vaccinated, a patient develops antibodies that make them immune to cowpox, but they also develop immunity to the smallpox virus, or Variola virus. The cowpox vaccinations and later incarnations proved so successful that in 1980, the World Health Organization announced that smallpox was the first disease to be eradicated by vaccination efforts worldwide.[9] Other orthopox viruses remain prevalent in certain communities and continue to infect humans, such as the cowpox virus in Europe and monkeypox virus in Central and West Africa.[citation needed]
^Pelkonen PM, Tarvainen K, Hynninen A, Kallio ER, Henttonen K, Palva A, et al. (November 2003). "Cowpox with severe generalized eruption, Finland". Emerging Infectious Diseases. 9 (11): 1458–1461. doi:10.3201/eid0911.020814. PMC 3035531. PMID 14718092.
^Carroll DS, Emerson GL, Li Y, Sammons S, Olson V, Frace M, et al. (2011). "Chasing Jenner's vaccine: revisiting cowpox virus classification". PLOS ONE. 6 (8): e23086. Bibcode:2011PLoSO...623086C. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0023086. PMC 3152555. PMID 21858000.
^Barlow G, Irving WL, Moss PJ (2020). "20. Infectious disease". In Feather A, Randall D, Waterhouse M (eds.). Kumar and Clark's Clinical Medicine (10th ed.). Elsevier. p. 517. ISBN 978-0-7020-7870-5.
^Petersen BW, Damon IK (2020). "348. Smallpox, monkeypox and other poxvirus infections". In Goldman L, Schafer AI (eds.). Goldman-Cecil Medicine. Vol. 2 (26th ed.). Elsevier. pp. 2180–2183. ISBN 978-0-323-53266-2.
^ abVanessa Ngan, "Viral and Skin Infections", 2009
^"What's The Real Story About The Milkmaid And The Smallpox Vaccine?". NPR.org. Retrieved 2018-02-02.
^Thomas Cooper Library, University of South Carolina: "Edward Jenner and the Discovery of Vaccination", exhibition, 1996
^"Cowpox and paravaccinia". British Medical Journal. 4 (5575): 308–309. November 1967. doi:10.1136/bmj.4.5575.308. PMC 1748782. PMID 4293285.
^ abAbbas AK (2003). Cellular and Molecular Immunology (Fifth ed.). Philadelphia: Saunders. ISBN 978-0-7216-0008-6.
Cowpox is an infectious disease caused by the cowpox virus (CPXV). It presents with large blisters in the skin, a fever and swollen glands, historically...
an infection with the relatively mild cowpox virus conferred immunity against the deadly smallpox virus. Cowpox served as a natural vaccine until the...
vaccinae ('pustules of the cow'), the term devised by Jenner to denote cowpox. He used it in 1798 in the title of his Inquiry into the Variolae vaccinae...
species in this genus. Diseases associated with this genus include smallpox, cowpox, horsepox, camelpox, and mpox. The most widely known member of the genus...
the connection between cowpox and smallpox. He began investigating dairy farms in the Gloucestershire area looking for cowpox. This research was slow...
infection with the relatively mild cowpox virus would also confer immunity to the deadly smallpox. Jenner referred to cowpox as variolae vaccinae (smallpox...
could be produced by inoculating a person with material from a cowpox lesion. Cowpox is a poxvirus in the same family as variola. Jenner called the material...
developed the concept of vaccines and created the first vaccine) to denote cowpox. He used the phrase in 1798 for the long title of his Inquiry into the Variolae...
experimental cowpox vaccine by Edward Jenner. Jenner knew of a local belief that dairy workers who had contracted a relatively mild infection called cowpox were...
pharmaceutical solutions for the antiviral treatment of smallpox, monkeypox, cowpox, and vaccinia complications. In September 2009, SIGA Technologies received...
the smallpox vaccine. In 1768 Fewster realized that prior infection with cowpox rendered a person immune to smallpox. Fewster was educated at Bristol Grammar...
1800 soon after Edward Jenner introduced smallpox vaccine derived from cowpox, an animal disease distinct from smallpox. The term variolation was then...
milkman in the sense of cowman or dairyman. As a result of exposure to cowpox, which conveys a partial immunity to the disfiguring (and often fatal) disease...
pioneered the use of a vaccine to immunize persons with an inoculation of cowpox material. The new vaccine was a much safer and more effective way to prevent...
naturally acquired disease. Edward Jenner had also studied vaccination using cowpox (vaccinia) to give cross-immunity to smallpox in the late 1790s, and by...
because they had often been exposed to minor forms of the illness such as cowpox or variola minor disease in childhood. By the late 16th century, there existed...
experiment in inducing immunity against smallpox using cowpox. The notion that those people infected with cowpox, a relatively mild disease, were subsequently...
theory that a person who had contracted cowpox would be immune from smallpox. To test the theory, he took cowpox vesicles from a milkmaid named Sarah Nelmes...
inhibitors that inhibit caspase activity and an example is the CrmA protein of cowpox viruses. Whilst a number of viruses can block the effects of TNF and Fas...
called cowpox inoculation or vaccine inoculation (from Latin vacca = cow). Smallpox inoculation continued to be called variolation, whereas cowpox inoculation...
running a swimming bath. In addition, he carried out injections against cowpox. When the French troops withdrew from the region in 1814, Haffner remained...
activation of BAX and BAK. crmA, or cytokine response modifier A, is a cowpox serpin that inhibits caspases 1, 6 and 8, forming complexes with these caspases...
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