AMDOPARVOVIRUS INFECTIONS ARE PREVALENT, PERSISTENT, AND GENETICALLY DIVERSE IN ZOO-HOUSED RED PANDAS (AILURUS FULGENS).

ABSTRACT: Red pandas (Ailurus fulgens) are a globally endangered small carnivoran species and subjects of a robust ex situ conservation effort that includes animals housed in zoos. In 2018, red panda amdoparvovirus (RPAV) was discovered by metagenomics analyses of tissues from two geriatric red pandas, and in one case it was associated with significant lesions. Because RPAV was discovered in a single zoo cohort, it was unclear whether these infections represented a widely distributed, enzootic virus of red pandas or a localized 'spillover' from a different host species into this collection. The first goal of this study was to estimate the prevalence of RPAV in US zoos. The authors amplified RPAV from feces of 104 individual red pandas from 37 US zoos, and the virus was detected in 52/104 samp

SUBMITTER: Alex CE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9219412 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature