Novel canine bocavirus strain associated with severe enteritis in a dog litter

Abstract

Bocaviruses are small non-enveloped viruses with a linear ssDNA genome, that belong to the genus Bocaparvovirus of the subfamiliy Parvovirinae. Bocavirus infections are associated with a wide spectrum of disease in humans and various mammalian species. Here we describe a fatal enteritis associated with infection with a novel strain of canine bocavirus 2 (CaBoV-2), that occurred in a litter of German wirehaired pointers. Necropsy performed on three puppies revealed an enteritis reminiscent of canine parvovirus associated enteritis, accompanied with signs of lymphocytolytic disease in bone marrow, spleen, lymph nodes and thymus. While other major causes of enteritis of young dogs, including canine parvovirus, were excluded, by random PCR in combination with next-generation sequencing, a novel CaBoV-2 strain was detected. Phylogenetic analysis of the genome of this novel canine bocavirus strain indicated that this virus was indeed most closely related to group 2 canine bocaviruses. Infection with canine bocavirus was confirmed by in situ hybridization, which revealed the presence of CaBoV-2 nucleic acid in the intestinal tract and lymphoid tissues of the dogs. In a small-scale retrospective analysis concerning the role of CaBoV-2 no additional cases were identified. The findings of this study provide novel insights into the pathogenicity of canine bocaviruses.

Genetic characteristics of canine bocaviruses in Korean dogs

“…All CBoV-positive dogs showed respiratory system, gastrointestinal tract, or abortion problems in clinical and histopathological results, which are consistent with previous studies of CBoV infection (Bodewes et al, 2014;Kapoor et al, 2012;Lau et al, 2012). Further, CBoV was detected in 4 dogs (strains 13D003, 13D095, 14D142, and 14D193) that did not possess any other pathogens related to disease or death (Table 1).…”

“…This result is not consistent with the hypothesis that a relationship exists between a unique deletion and respiratory disease (Kapoor et al, 2012). In addition, the F13000791S strain, which does not have a unique deletion, was reported as a pathogen for enteritis (Bodewes et al, 2014).…”

“…Parvoviruses in the family Parvoviridae are currently divided into two subfamilies, Densovirinae and Parvovirinae, members of which infect non-vertebrate and vertebrate hosts, respectively (Brown, 2010;Fauquet et al, 2005). The subfamily Parvovirinae has been classified into eight genera: Amdoparvovirus, Aveparvovirus, Bocaparvovirus, Copiparvovirus, Dependoparvovirus, Erythroparvovirus, Protoparvovirus, and Tetraparvovirus (Bodewes et al, 2014). The genus bocavirus within the subfamily Parvovirinae contains small, non-enveloped, autonomously replicating, single-stranded DNA viruses with an icosahedral capsid.…”

Viral gut metagenomics of sympatric wild and domestic canids, and monitoring of viruses: Insights from an endangered wolf population

“…In dogs, the pathogenicity of bocaviruses is better studied for canine minute virus (CnMV), but less elucidated for the more recently identified bocaviruses. However, a recent fatal outbreak of enteritis in dogs was attributed to a canine bocavirus (Bodewes et al., ). Overall, this suggests that bocaviruses have the potential to cause disease, but we cannot exclude that under certain circumstances, this virus could be just an asymptomatic transient passenger, or even derived from an infected prey.…”

New viruses associated with canine gastroenteritis

“…Unbiased analysis of nucleic acid from diarrhoeic samples of dogs has enabled identification and characterisation of several previously unknown viruses. These include canine sapovirus, canine kobuvirus, canine circovirus and canine bocavirus (Li et al, 2011;Carmona-Vicente et al, 2013;Bodewes et al, 2014).…”