Our preliminary results from the orphan survey indicate that a significantly higher proportion of orphans have antibodies to EMV than do adults. None of the orphans had virus in their blood at the time of testing. This season, we aim to collect data on the proportion of pregnant females with antibodies, and, in collaboration again with carer groups, we plan to repeat our serological survey of orphans in south-east Queensland. Sincere thanks to rearers for their interest and cooperation. D. moluccense also occurs in eastern Cape York peninsula, but no Australian samples have been tested because of the species rare status here.
Purified virus is needed to characterise both the genome and the proteins of the virus.
Lin-Fa Wang has recently determined the complete nucleotide sequence of the EMV genome. It's length of over 18,300 nucleotides is staggering, considering that the genome size of all other known members of the Paramyxovirus family is only approximately 16,000 nucleotides. The order of genes along the EMV genome is the same as that for morbilliviruses but comparison of the nucleotide sequence of individual genes indicates that EMV differs significantly from other morbilliviruses. The virus is almost certainly the first representative of a new group of viruses in the Paramyxovirus family. Both polyclonal and monoclonal antibodies will be used to develop new diagnostic tests and to study virus structure and replication in cells in culture and in infected animals.