Hydrocephalus in Foxes -What is the Ljugan Virus Connection?

Checking I find that it was around 5 years ago that I mentioned hydrocephalus in fox cubs or, as people prefer to refer to it "congenital hydrocephalus".

In the Fox Deaths Project which I started we had fox 047 Congenital internal hydrocephalus and (WNDS ref. no. 09-05-23)

 

There have been others that were not submitted due to cause of death being quite clear.

 

Fox 001  01 05 2023

 

(c)2025 Sarah Mills/Bristol Fox Lady

Fox 002  06 05 2023

(c)2025 Sarah Mills/Bristol Fox Lady

Fox 003  13 05 2024

 

(c)2025 Sarah Mills/Bristol Fox Lady

Ljungan virus (LV), which is a picornavirus, has been detected in foxes, specifically in red fox cubs, and has been suspected to be a cause of congenital hydrocephalus in these animals. LV is known to cause this condition in some fox cubs, often leading to abandonment by the vixen due to its abnormal behaviour.

The virus transmission route is not fully understood , LV is thought to be transmitted through the fecal-oral route, as is common for many picornaviruses. Work on the LV-hydrocephalus connection is being carried out in the United States and Europe.

For centuries foxes have been ignored when it comes to research on health issues since they were considered to “only be there to hunt” and the rate of killing foxes was so high that hydrocephalus probably was not found and as for other illnesses or disease who cared they were “just foxes”. 

The fact that hydrocephalus is considered "common" in cubs around the UK should surely have set off some alarm bells -but then, wildlife rescues put down "unfit" foxes and treat and release healthy ones.

We are currently seeing more and more research carried out into foxes and in the UK with 75% of the population already lost perhaps we are learning a lot too late?

 

References

 

Vet Record  -Diagnosis and treatment of congenital hydrocephalus in a red fox (Vulpes vulpes) with seizures by Marcos Raposo, Sònia Añor, Judit Verdés, Vicente Soler, Jaume Martorell this was first published: 08 February 2022

https://bvajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/vrc2.310

 

Ljungan Virus: an Emerging Zoonosis? By Anna Greene McDonald M.D in Clinical Microbiology Newsletter Volume 31, Issue 23, 1 December 2009, Pages 177-182

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0196439909000531

 

Evolutionary Relationships of Ljungan Virus Variants Circulating in Multi-Host Systems across Europe by Chiara Rossi ,Nicola Zadra ,Cristina Fevola ,,Frauke Ecke 3ORCID, Birger Hörnfeldt ,René Kallies 4ORCID,Maria Kazimirova 5ORCID,Magnus Magnusson ,Gert E. Olsson , Rainer G. Ulrich 7ORCID, Anne J. Jääskeläinen ,Heikki Henttonen  andHeidi C. Hauffe 1,ORCID  MDPI Viruses Submission received: 25 May 2021 / Revised: 1 July 2021 / Accepted: 2 July 2021 / Published: 7 July 2021

https://www.mdpi.com/1999-4915/13/7/1317