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camelpox love

camelpox

Definitions

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a viral disease of camels closely related to smallpox

Etymologies

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Examples

  • Iraqi officials also admitted to U.N. weapons inspectors that they had conducted military research on a closely related virus called camelpox, which could have been used as a "surrogate" to develop production and dissemination techniques for smallpox virus.

    Scared Of Smallpox 2007

  • A given organism might be a purely agricultural threat, such as camelpox, to an overlap agent that threatens both humans and agriculture, such as Inspection

    Citizendium, the Citizens' Compendium - Recent changes [en] 2009

  • It had experimented with camelpox, a benign bug in its own right but more likely a stand-in for the much more worrisome smallpox virus.

    What Can Iraq Do? 2007

  • May possess smallpox virus; tested camelpox prior to Gulf War.

    Fair Game Valerie Plame Wilson 2007

  • Saddam Hussein has investigated dozens of biological agents causing diseases such as gas gangrene, plague, typhus, tetanus, cholera, camelpox and hemorrhagic fever, and he also has the wherewithal to develop smallpox.

    Address to the United Nations Security Council on Iraq and WMD 2003

  • Saddam Hussein has investigated dozens of biological agents causing diseases such as gas gangrene, plague, typhus (ph), tetanus, cholera, camelpox and hemorrhagic fever, and he also has the wherewithal to develop smallpox.

    CNN Transcript Feb 5, 2003 2003

  • Geoffrey Smith of Imperial College in London sequenced a strain of “camelpox” virus isolated from camels in Iran in 1970 and his findings were published in the April issue of the Journal of General Virology.

    Camel Virus Becomes Iraq’s Most Deadly Weapon? | Impact Lab 2002

  • We knew about some work done in Iraq with camelpox virus, which is a good surrogate for a smallpox virus.

    CNN Transcript Oct 28, 2001 2001

  • Variola, which causes smallpox, belongs to a family of pox viruses that include camelpox, monkeypox, cowpox, buffalopox and others.

    Breaking News: CBS News 2011

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hypernyms (1)

Words that are more generic or abstract

  1. animal disease

Comments

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  • MaryW commented on the word camelpox

    There are many poxviruses in nature, and they infect species that gather in swarms and herds, circulating among them like pickpockets at a fair. There are two principal kinds of pox viruses: the poxes of vertebrates and the poxes of insects. Pox hunters have so far discovered mousepox, monkeypox, skunkpox, pigpox, goatpox, camelpox, pseudocowpox, buffalopox, gerbilpox, several deerpoxes, chamoispox, a couple of sealpoxes, turkeypox, canarypox, pigeonpox, starlingpox, peacockpox, sparrowpox, juncopox, mynahpox, quailpox, parrotpox, and toadpox. There's mongolian horsepox, a pox called Yaba monkey tumor, and a pox called orf. There's dolphinpox, penguinpox, two kangaroopoxes, raccoonpox, and quokkapox. (The quokka is an Australian wallaby.) Snakes catch snakepox, spectacled caimans suffer from spectacled caimanpox, and crocodiles get crocpox. . . .

    Insects are tortured by poxviruses. There are three groups of insect poxviruses: the beetlepoxes, the butterflypoxes (which include the mothpoxes), and the poxes of flies, including the mosquitopoxes. And attempt to get to the bottom of the insect poxes would be like trying to enumerate the nine billion names of God.

    . . .

    . . . The insect poxes may have arisen in early Devonian times, long before the age of dinosaurs . . . and the first insects were evolving. . . .


    At least two known midgepoxes torment midges. Grasshoppers are known to suffer from at least six different grasshopperpoxes. If a plague of African locusts breaks out with locustpox, the plague is hit with a plague, and is in deep trouble. Poxviruses keep herds and swarms of living things in check, preventing them from growing to large and overwhelming their habitats.

    Richard Preston, The Demon in the Freezer: A True Story (New York: Random House, 2002), pp. 64-66

    February 16, 2016