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Adenoviruses are DNA viruses that naturally infect many vertebrates. The individual strains have been thought to be highly species specific. However, a new report describing an adenovirus outbreak in a closed colony of New World monkeys brings this belief into question.
Starting in May 2009, 23 of 68 titi monkeys housed in a single building at the California National Primate Research Center developed pneumonia and hepatitis. Nineteen of the infected animals died or were euthanized.
Using a pan-viral microarray assay, polymerase chain reaction, and electron microscopy, researchers identified the underlying pathogen — a novel adenovirus (“titi monkey adenovirus”; TMAdV). Phylogenetic analysis of the TMAdV genome showed that the virus was not cl…