Abstract
ABSTRACTReindeer herding is of great importance for the indigenous people of the Fennoscandia peninsula and northern Russia. There are also free-ranging feral populations of reindeer in Finland, Iceland, Norway and Russian Federation. The genus Pestivirus contains several viral species that infect ungulates and often show capacity to transmit between different host species. Sera from 520 Eurasian tundra reindeer (Rangifer tarandus tarandus) from Finland, Sweden, Norway, Iceland and Russian Federation were analysed and the prevalence of pestivirus-specific antibodies was determined. Seropositivity proportion was 48.5% for Sweden and 41.2% for Norway, but only 1.6% for Iceland and 2.5% for Finland. All Russian reindeer investigated were seronegative. Pan-pestivirus RT-PCR of seronegative animals (n = 156) from seropositive herds confirmed their negative status. These results indicate unexpectedly non-uniform circulation of an as yet uncharacterised pestivirus in Eurasian reindeer populations. The high seroprevalence in some regions warrants further studies of pestivirus infection dynamics, effects on reindeer health and population dynamics.
Highlights
Pestiviruses are of great veterinary importance since they infect a wide variety of ungulates, leading to serious health problems that can cause considerable economic losses for the livestock industry worldwide [1]
Specific antibodies to pestivirus were found in 49% and 48% of the samples from Sweden and 38% and 44% of the samples from Norway (Table 2)
Seropositive animals were found at all sampling sites in Norway and Sweden, with the percentage of seropositive adults being higher than the percentage of seropositive calves (Table 3)
Summary
Pestiviruses are of great veterinary importance since they infect a wide variety of ungulates, leading to serious health problems that can cause considerable economic losses for the livestock industry worldwide [1]. Semidomesticated reindeer (Rangifer tarandus tarandus) are herded by indigenous people in Eurasia, among whom they hold great historical, cultural, socio-economic and ecological importance [2]. Previous studies of pestivirus infection in reindeer, most recently reviewed by Larska [3], have reported the seroprevalence in Finland [4], Norway [5,6,7] and Sweden [8,9]. The clinical relevance of pestivirus in semi-domestic reindeer herds and populations is largely unknown. Due to the high impact of pestivirus infections on health and reproduction in other species [1], it is important to investigate how reindeer are exposed and affected
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