Prevalence of canine distemper virus in wild mustelids in the Czech Republic and a case of canine distemper in young stone martens

L. Pavlacik, V. Celer, P. Koubek and I. Literak
Additional contact information
L. Pavlacik: Department of Biology and Wildlife Diseases,
V. Celer: Institute of Microbiology and Immunology, University of Veterinary and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Brno, Czech Republic
P. Koubek: Institute of Vertebrate Biology of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Brno, Czech Republic
I. Literak: Department of Biology and Wildlife Diseases,

Veterinární medicína, 2007, vol. 52, issue 2, 69-73

Abstract: Between 2001 and 2003, a total of 194 samples of brain tissues of wild mustelids from the Czech Republic were tested for the presence of canine distemper virus (CDV) by direct immunofluorescence examination. Out of 21 animals exhibiting symptoms of the disease or changed behaviour, one mustelid was CDV positive (5% prevalence). In this group, 1 out of 18 stone martens (Martes foina) was CDV positive, while 2 pine martens (Martes martes) and 1 Eurasian badger (Meles meles) were CDV negative. Of 173 animals with unknown case history, 1 sample was positive (0.6% prevalence). In this group of animals, 1 out of 19 Eurasian badgers was positive, and stone martens (n = 96), pine martens (n = 4), polecats (Mustela putorius) ((n = 28), steppe polecats (Mustela eversmani) (n = 4), common weasels (Mustela nivalis) (n = 4), stoats (Mustela erminea) (n = 3) and American minks (Mustela vison) (n = 19) were negative. Clinical distemper was demonstrated in three stone marten pup siblings. In two of the siblings, CDV was demonstrated in footpads. The third of the siblings survived the acute stage of the disease and had virus neutralizing antibodies from the end of the acute stage until 6 months after the end of the acute stage, with a maximum antibody titre of 32. During the acute stage and 7 months after the end of the acute stage, no virus neutralizing antibodies were found.

Keywords: genus Morbillivirus; direct immunofluorescence test; serology; Eurasian badger; Martes foina; Meles meles (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2007
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://vetmed.agriculturejournals.cz/doi/10.17221/2057-VETMED.html (text/html)
http://vetmed.agriculturejournals.cz/doi/10.17221/2057-VETMED.pdf (application/pdf)
free of charge

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:caa:jnlvet:v:52:y:2007:i:2:id:2057-vetmed

DOI: 10.17221/2057-VETMED

Access Statistics for this article

Veterinární medicína is currently edited by Ing. Helena Smolová Ph.D.

More articles in Veterinární medicína from Czech Academy of Agricultural Sciences
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Ivo Andrle ().