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Scientists uncover secrets of potential beioterror virus

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"GALVESTON, Texas —Researchers at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston have discovered a key tactic that the Rift Valley Fever virus uses to disarm the defenses of infected cells.

The mosquito-borne African virus causes fever in humans, inflicting liver damage, blindness and even death on a small percentage of the people it infects. Rift Valley fever also afflicts cattle, goats and sheep, resulting in a nearly 100 percent abortion rate in these animals. Its outbreaks periodically cause economic devastation in parts of Kenya, Somalia, Sudan and Zimbabwe, and bioterrorism experts warn that its introduction to the United States would cripple the North American beef industry.

"It’s really important to know how this virus causes disease, and that’s what we’re doing here, working to understand its pathogenicity at the molecular level," said assistant professor Tetsuro Ikegami, lead author of a paper on the discovery now appearing in PLoS Pathogens."