BLUETONGUE
Bluetongue virus (BTV) causes a non- contagious, infectious, insect-borne disease of wild and domestic ruminants, known in English as bluetongue, in French as fievrt catarrhale du mouton and in Spanish as lengua azul.
BTV is the type species of the genus Orbivirus and exists as 24 — soon to be 25 — serotypes.BTV virions consist of a double-layered capsid surrounding a core particle. The diffuse outer layer comprises two structural proteins (VP2 and -5), which are responsible for the induction of serotype-specific neutralizing antibodies. The outer capsid encloses a core particle of 32 ring-like capsomeres arranged in icosahedral symmetry and consisting of five further structural proteins (VP1, -3, -4, -6 and -7). Within the core particle is the 10-segmented dsRNA genome.
Infectious Diseases of Wild Mammals and Birds in Europe, First Edition. Edited by Dolores Gavier-Widen, J. Paul Duff, and Anna Meredith. © 2012 Blackwell Publishing Ltd. Published 2012 by Blackwell Publishing Ltd.