Abstract
Canine distemper virus (CDV) infection is a primary threat affecting a wide number of carnivore species, including wild animals. In January 2013, two carcasses of Apennine wolves (Canis lupus) were collected in Ortona dei Marsi (L'Aquila province, Italy) by the local Veterinary Services. CDV was immediately identified either by RT-PCR or immunohistochemistry in lung and central nervous tissue samples. At the same time, severe clinical signs consistent with CDV infection were identified and taped (Videos S1–S3) from three wolves rescued in the areas surrounding the National Parks of the Abruzzi region by the Veterinary Services. The samples collected from these symptomatic animals also turned out CDV positive by RT-PCR. So far, 30 carcasses of wolves were screened and CDV was detected in 20 of them. The sequencing of the haemagglutinin gene and subsequent phylogenetic analysis demonstrated that the identified virus belonged to the CDV Arctic lineage. Strains belonging to this lineage are known to circulate in Italy and in Eastern Europe amongst domestic dogs. To the best of our knowledge this is the first report of CDV Arctic lineage epidemics in the wild population in Europe.
Highlights
Canine distemper virus (CDV) belongs to the genus Morbillivirus of the Paramyxoviridae family and causes distemper
CDV infection was confirmed in wolves by IHC (Fig. 2 and 3) and RT-PCR for CDV detection; both tests were performed on lung and central nervous tissues
The present study showed that a CDV strain belonging to the Arctic lineage infected and killed 20 Apennine wolves of different ages in the Abruzzi region during the winter of 2013
Summary
Canine distemper virus (CDV) belongs to the genus Morbillivirus of the Paramyxoviridae family and causes distemper. CDV has a nonsegmented single stranded negative RNA genome of nearly 16 kb encoding six viral proteins. One of these is the haemagglutinin protein (H) coded by the H gene. The importance of the H gene in the context of the life cycle of the virus has been further highlighted by the occurrence of high genetic variation within the strains detected worldwide [11,12,13,14,15,16]. A cluster or lineage classification has been proposed based upon the genetic relatedness of the H gene of the currently circulating CDVs. Seven clusters have been identified so far including America-1, America, Arctic-like, Asia-1, Asia-2, Europe and Europe Wildlife [17,18].
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