Canine Parvovirus Found in Wild Carnivores

by Merry Buckley

When canine parvovirus first emerged in 1978, it caused a global pandemic in which hundreds of thousands of dogs are thought to have died. Since then, the virus has occasionally shown up in wild animals, but these were considered a result of small-scale spillovers from dog populations.

A new study by Andrew Allison and Colin Parrish of the Baker Institute for Animal Health in the College of Veterinary Medicine and others shows that many wild carnivores actually carry the virus, and that it is relatively easy for a parvovirus from a wild carnivore to adapt to life in a dog and vice versa.

“This is the first systematic study to investigate which carnivore species in the wild are infected with canine parvovirus and how prevalent it may be,” says Allison, a postdoctoral associate. “Surprisingly, it was everywhere we looked.”

Short URL: http://caninechronicle.com/?p=65752

Posted by chesliepickett on Dec 2 2014. Filed under Health & Training, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.