Animal viral diseases and global change: bluetongue and West Nile fever as paradigms

Jiménez-Clavero, Miguel Á

transmission occurred between humans (Gurley et al., 2007) . Finally, it is important to note that there is probably a species barrier crossing after every first diagnosis of a viral emerging disease, even though the natural reservoir might remain unknown. In 2003, the first cases of what appeared to be a new disease entity with fatal consequences for affected humans, were diagnosed in Hong Kong. It received the name of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and caused a great social concern worldwide, particularly when clusters of cases were detected in up to a dozen countries in three continents around the world, although a rapid response prevented further spread. The causative agent of this disease, named SARS virus, was identified during earlier investigations Kuiken et al., 2003) , but its natural host remained unknown until Rhinolophidae (horseshoe bats) species were identified as reservoir hosts (Li et al., 2005; Cui et al., 2007) .