Emerging Infectious Diseases (Dec 2000)

Mass Die-Off of Caspian Seals Caused by Canine Distemper Virus

  • Seamus Kennedy,
  • Thijs Kuiken,
  • Paul D. Jepson,
  • Robert Deaville,
  • Morag Forsyth,
  • Tom Barrett,
  • Marco W.G. van de Bildt,
  • Albert D.M.E. Osterhaus,
  • Tariel Eybatov,
  • Callan Duck,
  • Aidyn Kydyrmanov,
  • Igor Mitrofanov,
  • Susan Wilson

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3201/eid0606.000613
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 6, no. 6
pp. 637 – 639

Abstract

Read online

Thousands of Caspian seals (Phoca caspica) died in the Caspian Sea from April to August 2000. Lesions characteristic of morbillivirus infection were found in tissue specimens from dead seals. Canine distemper virus infection was identified by serologic examination, reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction, and sequencing of selected P gene fragments. These results implicate canine distemper virus infection as the primary cause of death.

Keywords