Variants of Coconut cadang-cadang viroid have been identified in a plantation oil palm growing in Malaysia. Three size classes are described, comprising 297, 293, and 270 nt. Compared with the 296-nt form of coconut cadang-cadang viroid (CCCVd), all variants substituted C31 --> U in the pathogenicity domain and A175 --> C in the right-hand terminus. Other mutations and deletions accounted for the different sizes. These are the first sequences reported for variants of Coconut cadang-cadang viroid in a species other than coconut palm, and this is the first evidence that variants closely related to CCCVd occur outside the Philippines.
All seven recognized human cases of Hendra virus (HeV) infection have occurred in Queensland, Australia. Recognized human infections have all resulted from a HeV infected horse that was unusually efficient in transmitting the virus and a person with a high exposure to infectious secretions. In the large outbreak in Malaysia where Nipah virus (NiV) was first identified, most human infections resulted from close contact with NiV infected pigs. Outbreak investigations in Bangladesh have identified drinking raw date palm sap as the most common pathway of NiV transmission from Pteropus bats to people, but person-to-person transmission of NiV has been repeatedly identified in Bangladesh and India. Although henipaviruses are not easily transmitted to people, these newly recognized, high mortality agents warrant continued scientific attention.