Question

A cowpox virus cannot cause the same type of infection as small pox in humans. This is called ________ specificity.

Would this be host specificity or something else?

Answer 1

Poxviruses is a group can infect a large number of animals, that highly host ranges as host specificity and virulence. Viruses cannot replicate without a host cell, the specificity of this interaction determines the host and the cells within the host, that can be infected by a particular virus. Cowpox virus naturally infect a broad spectrum of animals and only cause relatively and mild infection in humans.

A number of poxviruses genes have been identified that possess host range function in experimental settings, and many of these host range specificity in antiviral host pathway. The biology of poxviruses includes broadly with a focus on host range, zoonotic infection, virulence, genomics and host range genes as well as host range factors and their interactions with the host innate immune systems contribute to the poxviruses host range and virulence.