Pacific spadenose shark explained

The Pacific spadenose shark (Scoliodon macrorhynchos) is a species of requiem shark, in the family Carcharhinidae. It was once regarded as conspecific to the spadenose shark (S. laticaudus).^[1]

Virology

Pacific spadenose sharks are identified as hosts of the Flavivirus Wenzhou shark flavivirus.^[2] While currently unknown if Wenzhou shark flavivirus causes disease in infected shark hosts, it is thought that the virus moves horizontally from the gazami crab Portunus trituberculatus to shark hosts^[3] in a manner similar to other Flavivirus infections such as Dengue virus, which cycle horizontally between arthropod (mosquito) and vertebrate hosts.

Notes and References

1. White, W.T., Last, P.R. & Naylor, G.J.P. (2010) Scoliodon macrorhynchos (Bleerer, 1852), a second species of spadenose shark from the western Pacific (Carcharhiniformes: Carcharhinidae). pp. 61–76. In: P.R. Last, W.T. White, J.J. Pogonoski (eds) Descriptions of New Sharks and Rays from Borneo. CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research Paper 032, 165 pp.
2. Shi M, Lin XD, Chen X, Tian JH, Chen LJ, Li K . etal. The evolutionary history of vertebrate RNA viruses. . Nature . 2018 . 556 . 7700 . 197–202 . 29618816 . 10.1038/s41586-018-0012-7 . 2018Natur.556..197S. 256771319.
3. Parry R, Asgari S. Discovery of Novel Crustacean and Cephalopod Flaviviruses: Insights into the Evolution and Circulation of Flaviviruses between Marine Invertebrate and Vertebrate Hosts. . J Virol . 2019 . 93 . 14 . 31068424 . 10.1128/JVI.00432-19 . 6600200 .