Aphylogenetic study on the NP gene of detected canine distemper virus in (2008-2011) Iran

Authors

1 Department of Environmental Sciences, Faculty of Fisheries and Environmental Sciences, Gorgan University of Agricultural Sciences & Natural Resources, Gorgan, Iran

2 Assistant professor, Section of Zoo and Wildlife Medicine.Department of Clinical Sciences, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Tehran.

3 Faculty of Medicine, Army University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

4 Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Canine Distemper (CD) is a lethal systemic
disease affecting a wide variety of terrestrial carnivores.
OBJECTIVES: This study was performed to survey epidemiological
and molecular characteristics of the canine distemper virus
(CDV) strains circulating in Iran. METHODS: In this study, 19
CDV-suspected unvaccinated dogs from Northeast and center of
Iran were analyzed for presence of CDV nucleoprotein (NP) gene
using Nested-PCR during 2008- 2011. Different biological samples
of 14 dogs were positive. RESULTS: The phylogenetic analysis
based on partial NP gene sequences indicated the presence of two
major clusters that are clearly different from vaccine strains in Iran.
One cluster belongs to the European group and the other one to the
Arctic group. CONCLUTIONS: Due to a lack of phylogenetic
analysis on CDV in countries bordering Iran, except Turkey, the
ancestor of Iranian sequences specially Iranian Arctic sequences
could not be definitely identified. This study is the first report on
phylogenetic analysis of CDV from domestic dogs in Iran.

Keywords