Norovirus (Feline Calicivirus – Norovirus surrogate)

Norovirus is the most common cause of viral gastroenteritis, indeed, a recent surveillance study determined that around 90% of all non-bacterial outbreaks in Europe could be attributed to Norovirus (Lopman et al., 2003). This resilient virus can be spread by person to person contact, via aerosols, through contaminated food and water as well as via environmental surfaces. It is capable of causing sporadic cases as well as large outbreaks which typically occur within institutionalised settings such as hospitals, schools or cruise ships.

As a cell culture system has only just been described for the propagation of norovirus (Straub et al., 2007), feline calicivirus is currently the most widely used surrogate virus and is deemed to be an adequate model for norovirus inactivation studies. Feline calicivirus is used as a surrogate as it has a similar genome organisation, capsid architecture and biochemical properties as that of norovirus (Doultree et al., 1999).

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References:

1. Doultree, J. C., J. D. Druce, C. J. Birch, D. S. Bowden, and J. A. Marshall. 1999. Inactivation of feline calicivirus, a Norwalk virus surrogate. Journal of Hospital Infections. 41:51-57.

2. Lopman, B. A., M. H. Reacher, Y. van Duijnhoven, F.-X. Hanon, D. Brown, and M. Koopmans. 2003. Viral gastroenteritis outbreaks in Europe, 1995-2000. Emerging Infectious Diseases. 9:90-96.

3. Straub, T. M., K. Höner zu Bentrup, P. Orosz-Coghlan, A. Dohnalkova, B. K. Mayer, R. A. Bartholomew, C. O. Valdez, C. J. Bruckner-Lea, C. P. Gerba, M. Abbaszadegan, and C. A. Nickerson. 2007. In vitro cell culture infectivity assay for human noroviruses. Emerging Infectious Diseases. 13:396-403.