Volume 11 Issue 6
Phocine Distemper Virus: Current Knowledge and Future Directions
Pádraig J. Duignan,Marie-Françoise Van Bressem,Jason D. Baker,Michelle Barbieri,Kathleen M. Colegrove,Sylvain De Guise,Rik L. De Swart,Giovanni Di Guardo,Andrew Dobson,W. Paul Duprex,Greg Early,Deborah Fauquier,Tracey Goldstein,Simon J. Goodman,Bryan Grenfell,Kátia R. Groch,Frances Gulland,Ailsa Hall,Brenda A. Jensen,Karina Lamy,
1Department of Ecosystem and Public Health, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB T2N 4Z6, Canada
2Cetacean Conservation Medicine Group (CMED), Peruvian Centre for Cetacean Research (CEPEC), Pucusana, Lima 20, Peru
3Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center, National Marine Fisheries Service, NOAA, 1845 WASP Blvd., Building 176, Honolulu, Hawaii 96818, USA
4The Marine Mammal Centre, Sausalito, CA 94965, USA
5Zoological Pathology Program, College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Maywood, IL 60153, USA
6Department of Pathobiology and Veterinary Science, and Connecticut Sea Grant College Program, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT 06269, USA
7Department of Viroscience, Erasmus MC, 3015 CN Rotterdam, The Netherlands
8Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Teramo, 64100 Teramo, Italy
9Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544-2016, USA
10Department of Microbiology, Boston University School of Medicine, Boston University, 620 Albany Street, Boston, MA 02118, USA
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Abstract
Phocine distemper virus (PDV) was first recognized in 1988 following a massive epidemic in harbor and grey seals in north-western Europe. Since then, the epidemiology of infection in North Atlantic and Arctic pinnipeds has been investigated. In the western North Atlantic endemic infection in harp and grey seals predates the European epidemic, with relatively small, localized mortality events occurring primarily in harbor seals. By contrast, PDV seems not to have become established in European harbor seals following the 1988 epidemic and a second event of similar magnitude and extent occurred in 2002. PDV is a distinct species within the Morbillivirus genus with minor sequence variation between outbreaks over time. There is now mounting evidence of PDV-like viruses in the North Pacific/Western Arctic with serological and molecular evidence of infection in pinnipeds and sea otters. However, despite the absence of associated mortality in the region, there is concern that the virus may infect the large Pacific harbor seal and northern elephant seal populations or the endangered Hawaiian monk seals. Here, we review the current state of knowledge on PDV with particular focus on developments in diagnostics, pathogenesis, immune response, vaccine development, phylogenetics and modeling over the past 20 years.
Keywords: Morbillivirus; pinnipeds; sea otter; CD150/SLAM; phylogeny; pathology; epidemiology; immunity; vaccine