[Can obesity be infectious?].

Currently the presence of obesity is increasing and it has become the basic civilisation illness of our times. Up to date no attention has been paid to the possibility of etiology of infectious obesity. Recently some publications have appeared whose authors suggest a possibility of an infectious derivation of some forms of obesity. Six pathogens causing obesity in animals have been described: canine distemper virus (CDV), avian adenovirus, Borna disease virus (BDV), SMAM-1, human adenovirus Ad-36, scrapie agent, Rous-associated virus-7 (RAV-7). Among them two viruses occur in humans: human adenovirus Ad-36 and avian adenovirus SMAM-1.