Aleutian Mink Disease Parvovirus in Wild Riparian Carnivores in Spain

Abstract

Serious declines in populations of native European mink (Mustela lutreola) have occurred in Europe. One responsible factor may be infectious diseases introduced by exotic American mink (Mustela vison). In order to investigate a possible role for Aleutian mink disease parvovirus (ADV), we surveyed native riparian carnivores and feral American mink. When serum samples from 12 free-ranging European and 16 feral American mink were tested, antibodies to ADV were detected from three of nine European mink. ADV DNA was detected by polymerase chain reaction in whole cell DNA from four of seven carcasses; two American mink, one European mink and a Eurasian otter (Lutra lutra). Lesions typical of Aleutian disease were present in one of the American mink. A portion of the ADV VP2 capsid gene was sequenced and the results suggested that two sequence types of ADV were circulating in Spain, and that the Spanish ADVs differed from other described isolates from North America and Europe. Future conservation and restoration efforts should include measures to avoid introduction or spread of ADV infection to native animals.

Comparative molecular analysis of strains of the Aleutian Disease Virus isolated from farmed and wild mink

“…with American mink and has played a significant role in reducing the European mink population [7,16]. However, there are still no persuasive arguments that could definitively confirm or rule out the possibility of the circulation of AMDV between populations of farmed and free-living animals.…”

Aleutian mink disease virus in furbearing mammals in Nova Scotia, Canada

“…Free-ranging American mink populations are infected with the Aleutian mink disease virus (AMDV) across Canada [1][2][3][4][5] and in several European countries [6][7][8][9]. The occurrence of natural infection with or exposure to AMDV in a few members of the Mustelidae family (e.g., European mink, ferrets, polecats, stone martens, pine martens, Eurasian otters), and other carnivores (striped skunks, common genets, raccoons, foxes) has also been reported [6,8,[10][11][12][13][14].…”

Testing for Aleutian Mink Disease Virus in the River Otter (Lontra canadensis) in Sympatry with Infected American Mink (Neovison vison)

“…It appears that North American river otters can be exposed to AMDV (Wells et al 1989;Mañ as et al 2001;Farid 2013); however, it remains to be confirmed whether otters can mount an immune response (i.e., exhibit AMDV antibodies), and express clinical symptoms of disease (Kenyon et al 1978;Wells et al 1989;Farid 2013). Nevertheless, our finding of no evidence of AMDV in otters in a location with known infection in mink may be indicative of barriers to spread between mink and otter.…”

“…Wildlife other than American mink can become infected with or exposed to AMDV, including striped skunk (Mephitis mephitis), ermine (Mustela erminea), European mink (Mustela lutreola), raccoon dog (Nyctereutes procyonoides), and raccoon (Procyon lotor) (Alexandersen et al 1985;Mañ as et al 2001;Pennick et al 2007;Farid 2013). Given demonstrated global problems with mink farm biosecurity (Bonesi and Palazon 2007;Bowman et al 2007), there is potential for mink farms to be sources of cross-species spillover of AMDV (Nituch et al 2011(Nituch et al , 2012.…”

“…Given the degree of sympatry, niche overlap, and phylogenetic similarity of these two species, and thus the potential for spillover of AMDV from mink, we hypothesized that AMDV would be prevalent in the otter. There have been occasional observations of AMDV or AMDV-like symptoms in European otters (Lutra lutra; Wells et al 1989;Mañ as et al 2001), but only two surveys for AMDV in North American river otters (Gaydos et al 2007;Farid 2013), with inconclusive results. Gaydos et al (2007) used an antibody test and found no evidence of disease exposure, whereas Farid (2013) used PCR for viral DNA, and found two of 11 individuals (18%) positive for AMDV.…”