Chronic Hepatitis and Primary Liver Cancer in Woodchucks (Marmota Monax) Associated with Chronic Woodchuck Hepatitis Virus (Whv) Infection

Naturally Occurring WHV Infection and Other Mammalian and Avian Hepadnaviruses The hepatitis B virus (HBV) of humans and great apes is the prototype of the family Hepadnaviridae, a group hepatotropic DNA viruses that infect several mammalian (Genus: Orthohepadnavirus) and avian (Genus: Avihepadnavirus) species. The second member of the hepadnavirus family, WHV, was identified in the Eastern woodchuck. The virus was described by Summers and his colleagues in a colony of woodchucks that originated in the native habitat but were maintained by Snyder in a conventional laboratory animal environment. For some years, the colony experienced high rates of chronic hepatitis and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), hepatic diseases known to be associated in humans with chronic HBV infection. WHV in the serum of many of the woodchucks was, on the basis of morphological and molecular analyses, classified as a member of the HBV virus family.