Genetically distant American Canine distemper virus lineages have recently caused epizootics with somewhat different characteristics in raccoons living around a large suburban zoo in the USA.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Mortality rates have differed during distemper outbreaks among free-ranging raccoons (Procyon lotor) living around a large Chicago-area zoo, and appeared higher in year 2001 than in 1998 and 2000. We hypothesized that a more lethal variant of the local Canine distemper virus (CDV) lineage had emerged in 2001, and sought the genetic basis that led to increased virulence. However, a more complex model surfaced during preliminary analyses of CDV genomic sequences in infected tissues and of virus isolated in vitro from the raccoons.

Results

Phylogenetic analyses of subgenomic CDV fusion (F) -, phosphoprotein (P) -, and complete hemagglutinin (H) - gene sequences indicated that distinct American CDV lineages caused the distemper epizootics. The 1998 outbreak was caused

SUBMITTER: Lednicky JA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC524033 | biostudies-literature | 2004 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature