Canine distemper virus as a threat to wild tigers in Russia and across their range.
Canine distemper virus (CDV) has recently been identified in populations of wild tigers in Russia and India. Tiger populations are generally too small to maintain CDV for long periods, but are at risk of infections arising from more abundant susceptible hosts that constitute a reservoir of infection. Because CDV is an additive mortality factor, it could represent a significant threat to small, isolated tiger populations. In Russia, CDV was associated with the deaths of tigers in 2004 and 2010, and was coincident with a localized decline of tigers in Sikhote-Alin Biosphere Zapovednik (from 25 tigers in 2008 to 9 in 2012). Habitat continuity with surrounding areas likely played an important role in promoting an ongoing recovery. We recommend steps be taken to assess the presence and the impact of CDV in all tiger range states, but should not detract focus away from the primary threats to tigers, which include habitat loss and fragmentation, poaching and retaliatory killing. Research priorities include: (i) recognition and diagnosis of clinical cases of CDV in tigers when they occur; and (ii) collection of baseline data on the health of wild tigers. CDV infection of individual tigers need not imply a conservation threat, and modeling should complement disease surveillance and targeted research to assess the potential impact to tiger populations across the range of ecosystems, population densities and climate extremes occupied by tigers. Describing the role of domestic and wild carnivores as contributors to a local CDV reservoir is an important precursor to considering control measures.
Wildlife Conservation Society, Bronx, New York, USA.|Boyd Orr Centre for Population and Ecosystem Health, Institute of Biodiversity, Animal Health and Comparative Medicine, College of Medical, Veterinary and Life Sciences, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, UK.
Martin
M
Gilbert
Wildlife Conservation Society, Bronx, New York, USA.
Svetlana V
SV
Soutyrina
Pacific Geographical Institute, Far Eastern Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Vladivostok, Russia.|Far Eastern Federal University, Vladivostok, Russia.
Ivan V
IV
Seryodkin
Institute of Biology and Soil Sciences, Far Eastern Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Vladivostok, Russia.
Nadezhda
N
Sulikhan
Institute of Biology and Soil Sciences, Far Eastern Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Vladivostok, Russia.
Olga V
OV
Uphyrkina
Lazovskii State Nature Zapovednik, Lazo, Primorskii Krai, Russia.
Mikhail
M
Goncharuk
Boyd Orr Centre for Population and Ecosystem Health, Institute of Biodiversity, Animal Health and Comparative Medicine, College of Medical, Veterinary and Life Sciences, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, UK.
Louise
L
Matthews
Boyd Orr Centre for Population and Ecosystem Health, Institute of Biodiversity, Animal Health and Comparative Medicine, College of Medical, Veterinary and Life Sciences, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, UK.
Sarah
S
Cleaveland
Wildlife Conservation Society, Bronx, New York, USA.
Dale G
DG
Miquelle
D000818:Animals; D003247:Conservation of Natural Resources; D004197:Disease Reservoirs / Q000662:veterinary / Q000821:virology; D004216:Distemper / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000401:mortality / Q000635:transmission; D004217:Distemper Virus, Canine / Q000502:physiology*; D011157:Population Dynamics; D012426:Russia / Q000453:epidemiology; D046010:Tigers / Q000821:virology*
Panthera tigris altaica; canine distemper virus; conservation threat; extinction; population decline