Frontiers in Virology · Published 2026-07-23 · DOI 10.3389/fviro.2026.1871673
Bruna Fonseca Matias, Michele Lunardi, Gabriela Donini Cesário, Ana Paula Frederico Rodrigues Loureiro Bracarense, Alice Fernandes Alfieri, Amauri Alcindo Alfieri
Papillomavirus is an oncogenic virus that infects the cutaneous and mucosal epithelia of several host species. This study investigated the diversity of bovine papillomavirus (BPV) types in hyperplastic lesions of the esophageal mucosa in dairy cows from Paraná State, southern Brazil. A total of 23 hyperproliferative lesions were collected from the esophagus of 16 dairy cows and histologically classified as squamous papillomas. Consensual primer pairs FAP59/FAP64, MY11/MY09, and E1F2/E1R4 were used to partially amplify the L1 and E1 genes of BPVs. Amplicons were sequenced using the Sanger method. BPV DNA was detected in 21.7% (5/23) of the esophageal lesions. Sequence analysis identified BPV types 1 and 4, previously associated with such lesions, in two lesions. BPV types 9 and 40 were detected for the first time in mucosal lesions of the upper gastrointestinal tract (UGT) in two additional samples. Furthermore, one lesion contained DNA from a putative novel BPV type phylogenetically related to BPV12. Overall, five distinct BPV types were molecularly detected across five lesions. These findings suggest that, similar to cutaneous papillomatosis, multiple BPV types may be associated with papillomas in the esophageal mucosa of dairy cows, particularly those raised on bracken fern–contaminated pastures. The study highlights the importance of utilizing multiple consensual primer sets targeting conserved regions of the L1 and E1 genes to more accurately characterize BPV diversity in mucosal lesions, as novel and previously unreported viral types may be present.
Abstract from DOAJ. Public domain (CC0 1.0).
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Matias, B., Lunardi, M., Cesário, G., et al. (2026). Multiple bovine papillomavirus types in squamous papillomas of the upper gastrointestinal tract of dairy cows from southern Brazil. Frontiers in Virology. https://doi.org/10.3389/fviro.2026.1871673