IUCN/SSC Cat Specialist Group Library

IUCN / SSC Cat Specialist Group - Digital Cat Library

View printer friendly
Daoust, P.-Y.; McBurney, S.R.; Godson, D.L.; van de Bildt, M.W.G.; Osterhaus, A.D.M.E.
Canine distemper virus-associated encephalitis in free-living lynx (_Lynx canadensis_) and bobcats (_Lynx rufus_) of eastern Canada
2009 Journal of Wildlife Diseases (45): 611-624
Between 1993 and 1999, encephalitis caused by morbillivirus was diagnosed by immunohistochemistry and histology in six lynx (_Lynx canadensis_) and one bobcat (_Lynx rufus_) in the eastern Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. Five of the six cases in lynx occurred within an 11-mo period in 1996-97. A second bobcat with encephalitis caused by unidentified protozoa and a nematode larva also had immunohistochemical evidence of neurologic infection by morbillivirus. The virus was identified as canine distemper virus (CDV) by reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction and nucleotide sequencing in four of five animals from which frozen tissue samples were available, and it was isolated in cell culture from one of them. To our knowledge, this is the first report of disease caused by CDV in free-living felids in North America.
	PDF files are only accessible to Friends of the Cat Group. Joining Friends of the Cat Group gives you unlimited access and downloads in the Cat SG Library for one year, and allows you to receive our newsletter Cat News (2 regular issues per year plus special issues). More information how to join here