Lizard erythrocytic viruses (LEVs) have previously been described in Lacerta monticola from Serra da Estrela, Portugal. Like other known erythrocytic viruses of heterothermic vertebrates, these viruses have never been adapted to cell cultures and remain uncharacterized at the molecular level. In this study, we made attempts to adapt the virus to cell cultures that resulted instead in the isolation of a previously undetected Ranavirus closely related to FV3. The Ranavirus was subsequently detected by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) in the blood of infected lizards using primers for a conserved portion of the Ranavirus major capsid protein gene. Electron microscopic study of the new Ranavirus disclosed, among other features, the presence of intranuclear viruses that may be related to an unrecognized intranuclear morphogenetic process. Attempts to detect by PCR a portion of the DNA polymerase gene of the LEV in infected lizard blood were successful. The recovered sequence had 65.2/69.4% nt/aa% homology with a previously detected sequence from a snake erythrocytic virus from Florida, which is ultrastructurally different from the studied LEV. These results further support the hypothesis that erythrocytic viruses are related to one another and may represent a new group of nucleo-cytoplasmic large deoxyriboviruses.

Specimens for the detection of avian influenza virus (AIV) were collected from 1937 waterfowl on the Wexford Sloblands, a major wetland reserve in southeast Ireland, between January 2003 and September 2007. During the same period, 1404 waterfowl were sampled at other locations in Ireland. Specimens were tested either by virus isolation or real-time reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (rtRT–PCR). A total of 32 isolates of AIV, comprising nine subtypes, was obtained from specimens from the Sloblands compared with just one isolate from elsewhere in Ireland. Samples from nine other waterfowl, five of which were from the Sloblands, tested positive for AIV by rtRT–PCR. Ecological factors are likely to have contributed to the higher detection rate of AIV at the Sloblands compared with the rest of Ireland. It was concluded that targeted surveillance at such sites is a cost-effective means of monitoring the circulation of new AIVs in waterfowl, whereas widespread opportunistic sampling is unproductive and wasteful of resources.