Evolution and Interspecies Transmission of Canine Distemper Virus—An Outlook of the Diverse Evolutionary Landscapes of a Multi-Host Virus

Abstract

Canine distemper virus (CDV) is a worldwide distributed virus which belongs to the genus Morbillivirus within the Paramyxoviridae family. CDV spreads through the lymphatic, epithelial, and nervous systems of domestic dogs and wildlife, in at least six orders and over 20 families of mammals. Due to the high morbidity and mortality rates and broad host range, understanding the epidemiology of CDV is not only important for its control in domestic animals, but also for the development of reliable wildlife conservation strategies. The present review aims to give an outlook of the multiple evolutionary landscapes and factors involved in the transmission of CDV by including epidemiological data from multiple species in urban, wild and peri-urban settings, not only in domestic animal populations but at the wildlife interface. It is clear that different epidemiological scenarios can lead to the presence of CDV in wildlife even in the absence of infection in domestic populations, highlighting the role of CDV in different domestic or wild species without clinical signs of disease mainly acting as reservoirs (peridomestic and mesocarnivores) that are often found in peridomestic habits triggering CDV epidemics. Another scenario is driven by mutations, which generate genetic variation on which random drift and natural selection can act, shaping the genetic structure of CDV populations leading to some fitness compensations between hosts and driving the evolution of specialist and generalist traits in CDV populations. In this scenario, the highly variable protein hemagglutinin (H) determines the cellular and host tropism by binding to signaling lymphocytic activation molecule (SLAM) and nectin-4 receptors of the host; however, the multiple evolutionary events that may have facilitated CDV adaptation to different hosts must be evaluated by complete genome sequencing. This review is focused on the study of CDV interspecies transmission by examining molecular and epidemiological reports based on sequences of the hemagglutinin gene and the growing body of studies of the complete genome; emphasizing the importance of long-term multidisciplinary research that tracks CDV in the presence or absence of clinical signs in wild species, and helping to implement strategies to mitigate the infection. Integrated research incorporating the experience of wildlife managers, behavioral and conservation biologists, veterinarians, virologists, and immunologists (among other scientific areas) and the inclusion of several wild and domestic species is essential for understanding the intricate epidemiological dynamics of CDV in its multiple host infections.

First detection and full genomic analysis of Canine Circovirus in CPV-2 infected dogs in Colombia, South America

“…1) and that a strong phylogeographic patterns could be observed in at least three of the four globally reported genotypes. This geographic pattern has been described for other canine viruses such as the Canine Distemper Virus (CDV), where global evolutionary history of current CDV strains has been tracked showing that ancestral strains had evolve in independent model on each geographic regions from a single ancestral geographic origin 42,43 .…”

Genetic Adaptations, Biases, and Evolutionary Analysis of Canine Distemper Virus Asia-4 Lineage in a Fatal Outbreak of Wild-Caught Civets in Thailand

“…Of note, the preferable codon of UAU or CAU altered an encoding amino acid at position 549 in the H gene, from Tyr (Y) to His (H), which was found as 549H in the civet CDV-CP8 TH/2017. This site is important for binding to the SLAM receptor and is specific for host susceptibility [2,9,10,63]. Thus, the codon bias pattern at this site may be associated with the expansion of the host susceptibility and may extrapolate to the infectivity of CDV Asia-4 in civets.…”

“…Canine morbillivirus, previously known as canine distemper virus (CDV), has caused epizootics and endemics of devastating diseases worldwide [1]. The CDV belongs to the Morbillivirus genus, Paramyxoviridae family, and contains a 15,690 bp negative-sense single-stranded RNA genome [2]. Similar to other paramyxoviruses, such as the measles virus (MeV) in humans, phocine morbillivirus (phocid distemper virus) in a large group of pinniped and marine mammals, and the rinderpest virus (RPV), the CDV possesses non-overlapping, unsegmented transcriptional RNA which encodes six core structural proteins [3][4][5].…”

Development of a double monoclonal antibody–based sandwich enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay for detecting canine distemper virus

“…In addition, CDV infections of many endangered animals, including Amur tiger, Ethiopian wolf, and giant panda species, have also been reported (Loots et al 2017). CDV, a member of the genus Morbillivirus within the family Paramyxoviridae, is an enveloped, non-segmented, singlestranded RNA virus (Duque-Valencia et al 2019;Li et al 2018a, b). Its 15,690-nt viral genome encodes six open reading frames (ORFs) corresponding to six proteins: nuclear protein (N), phosphoprotein (P), matrix protein (M), fusion protein (F), hemagglutinin protein (H), and large protein (L) (Martinez-Gutierrez and Ruiz-Saenz 2016; Sidhu et al 1993).…”