title: Lethal distemper in badgers (Meles meles) following epidemic in dogs and wolves.
abstract: Canine distemper virus (CDV) represents an important conservation threat to many wild carnivores. A large distemper epidemic sustained by an Arctic-lineage strain occurred in Italy in 2013, mainly in the Abruzzi region, causing overt disease in domestic and shepherd dogs, Apennine wolves (Canis lupus) and other wild carnivores. Two badgers were collected by the end of September 2015 in a rural area of the Abruzzi region and were demonstrated to be CDV-positive by real time RT-PCR and IHC in several tissues. The genome of CDV isolates from badgers showed Y549H substitution in the mature H protein. By employing all publicly available Arctic-lineage H protein encoding gene sequences, six amino acid changes in recent Italian strains with respect to Italian strains of dogs from 2000 to 2008, were observed. A CDV strain belonging to the European-wildlife lineage was also identified in a fox found dead in the same region in 2016, proving co-circulation of an additional CDV lineage.
authors.affiliation: Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale dell'Abruzzo e del Molise (IZSAM), Campo Boario, 64100, Teramo, Italy.
authors.forename: Daria
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Di Sabatino
authors.affiliation: Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale dell'Abruzzo e del Molise (IZSAM), Campo Boario, 64100, Teramo, Italy.
authors.forename: Gabriella
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Di Francesco
authors.affiliation: Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale dell'Abruzzo e del Molise (IZSAM), Campo Boario, 64100, Teramo, Italy.
authors.forename: Guendalina
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Zaccaria
authors.affiliation: Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale dell'Abruzzo e del Molise (IZSAM), Campo Boario, 64100, Teramo, Italy.
authors.forename: Daniela
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Malatesta
authors.affiliation: Corpo Forestale dello Stato, Ufficio Territoriale per la Biodiversità, Viale Riviera 29, 65121, Pescara, Italy.
authors.forename: Luca
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Brugnola
authors.affiliation: Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale dell'Abruzzo e del Molise (IZSAM), Campo Boario, 64100, Teramo, Italy.
authors.forename: Maurilia
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Marcacci
authors.affiliation: Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale dell'Abruzzo e del Molise (IZSAM), Campo Boario, 64100, Teramo, Italy.
authors.forename: Ottavio
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Portanti
authors.affiliation: Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale dell'Abruzzo e del Molise (IZSAM), Campo Boario, 64100, Teramo, Italy.
authors.forename: Fabrizio
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: De Massis
authors.affiliation: Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale dell'Abruzzo e del Molise (IZSAM), Campo Boario, 64100, Teramo, Italy.
authors.forename: Giovanni
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Savini
authors.affiliation: Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale dell'Abruzzo e del Molise (IZSAM), Campo Boario, 64100, Teramo, Italy.
authors.forename: Liana
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Teodori
authors.affiliation: Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale dell'Abruzzo e del Molise (IZSAM), Campo Boario, 64100, Teramo, Italy.
authors.forename: Enzo
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Ruggieri
authors.affiliation: Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale dell'Abruzzo e del Molise (IZSAM), Campo Boario, 64100, Teramo, Italy.
authors.forename: Iolanda
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Mangone
authors.affiliation: Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale dell'Abruzzo e del Molise (IZSAM), Campo Boario, 64100, Teramo, Italy.
authors.forename: Pietro
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Badagliacca
authors.affiliation: Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale dell'Abruzzo e del Molise (IZSAM), Campo Boario, 64100, Teramo, Italy. Electronic address: a.lorusso@izs.it.
authors.forename: Alessio
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Lorusso
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D004216:Distemper / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000473:pathology / Q000821:virology*; D004217:Distemper Virus, Canine / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D004285:Dogs / Q000821:virology; D005260:Female; D006651:Histocytochemistry; D008168:Lung / Q000473:pathology / Q000821:virology; D045969:Mustelidae / Q000821:virology*; D010802:Phylogeny; D012367:RNA, Viral / Q000032:analysis / Q000235:genetics; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D019596:Wolves / Q000821:virology
chemical_list: D012367:RNA, Viral
keywords: Badgers; Canine distemper virus; Fox; Phylogeny; Whole genome sequencing; Wildlife