Circulation of diverse protoparvoviruses in wild carnivores, Italy

Abstract

The genus Protoparvovirus within the family Parvoviridae consists of some important viruses of dogs and cats. These include canine parvovirus (CPV) and feline panleukopenia virus (FPV), which share a close genetic and antigenic relationship, so that they are now included in the unique species Carnivore protoparvovirus-1 (Cotmore et al., 2014(Cotmore et al., , 2019. Parvoviruses are the smallest animal DNA viruses, with a diameter ranging from 18 to 26 nm. These viruses have an icosahedral symmetry with a linear, single-stranded DNA genome about 5.2 kb long (Figure 1). There are two major open reading frames in the genome, encoding for the non-structural proteins, NS1 and NS2, and the antigenically important capsid proteins, VP1 and VP2, respectively (Pérez et al., 2012;Reed et al., 1988). Although these viruses

Integrated Use of Molecular Techniques to Detect and Genetically Characterise DNA Viruses in Italian Wolves (Canis lupus italicus)

“…Twenty-one out of 23 (91.3%) wolves tested positive to Carnivore protoparvovirus 1 DNA. A higher frequency (97.6%) of infection in wolves was reported in Portugal by Rosa et al [ 62 ], while a lower frequency was found in tissue samples of wolves from Spain (67.6%) [ 16 ] and Italy (54.3%) [ 13 ]. Contrary, other European studies described a much lower frequency of infection using molecular techniques, ranging from 5 to 15.2% in wolves from Portugal and Italy, respectively [ 18 , 20 ].…”

“…The original CPV type 2 (CPV-2) was first reported in the late 1970s in domestic dogs [ 11 ] and originated from FPV or related viruses in wild carnivores [ 12 ]. Although CPV is a relatively new host-specific pathogen, the virus has spread rapidly in the form of the three antigenic variants 2a, 2b, and 2c (CPV-2a, CPV-2b, and CPV-2c), able to infect cats and to occasionally jump species barriers [ 7 , 13 , 14 , 15 ]. In Europe, the presence of CPV has been documented in a variety of free-ranging carnivore populations from canids, such as foxes and wolves [ 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 , 20 , 21 ], to mustelids [ 22 , 23 ], through serology or molecular methods.…”

Genetic diversity of vector-borne pathogens in spotted and brown hyenas from Namibia and Tanzania relates to ecological conditions rather than host taxonomy

“…Liesner et al [ 75 ] found seven out of 1023 (0.7%) domestic dog blood samples and none of 195 red fox ( Vulpes vulpes ) spleen samples from Brandenburg (Germany) to be positive, despite D. reticulatus occurring in the area at high abundance and high prevalence of R. raoultii in the local tick population [ 58 , 69 , 76 ]. In wildlife, R. raoultii has been detected in one Mongolian gazelle ( Procapra gutturosa ) [ 77 ] and one marbled polecat ( Vormela peregusna ) [ 78 ] in China, two bank voles ( Myodes glareolus ) [ 79 ] and a common vole ( Microtus arvalis ) [ 80 ] in Germany and a wild boar ( Sus scrofa ) in Italy [ 81 ]. As far as we know, finding R. raoultii in brown and spotted hyenas is the first reported presence of this spotted fever Rickettsia species in sub-Saharan Africa.…”

Genetic Characterization of Feline Parvovirus Isolate Fe–P2 in Korean Cat and Serological Evidence on Its Infection in Wild Leopard Cat and Asian Badger

“…Parvoviruses have shown consistently evolution over many years at a faster rate than other DNA viruses. Also, a variety of wild animals have increasingly detected as parvoviruses hosts (8). FPV has been known to infect other species like raccoon dogs, foxes, minks, African wild cats, cheetahs, and honey badgers (5,6).…”

“…Previous findings have reported the detection of FPV-sequences in tissues of the African wild cat and in feces of both cheetahs and honey badgers (6). In Italy, FPV was detected in red foxes (Vulpes vulpes) (2.8%, 7/252) and Eurasian badgers (Meles meles) (10%, 1/10), and in Portugal, parvovirus DNA was detected in Egyptian mongoose (57.8%), red fox (78.9%), and stone marten (75%) (7,8). Although FPV can infect diverse animal species, it is difficult to confirm the FPVinfection cases due to the genetic similarity and cross-reactivity between FPV and CPV (3).…”