| plasma thymulin concentrations, the thymus and organochlorine contaminant levels in seals infected with phocine distemper virus. | blood samples collected from live common seals (phoca vitulina) and grey seals (halichoerus grypus) around the coast of scotland and northern ireland during, and immediately after, an epizootic caused by phocid distemper virus (pdv) were analysed for thymulin content. thymulin levels were compared with neutralization titres and concentrations of organochlorine contaminants (ddt and its metabolites, seven chlorinated biphenyl congeners) derived from blood and blubber samples collected from the sa ... | 1992 | 1594929 |
| the descriptive epizootiology of phocine distemper in the uk during 1988/89. | the 'time, place, individual' approach, widely used in characterising human epidemics, was applied to the 1988 phocine distemper virus (pdv) epizootic affecting north sea seals. estimates of time of death from 157 (69%) of the 228 dead seals necropsied in 1988 indicated that the number of carcasses which were found more than 14 days post mortem increased as the epizootic progressed. although information provided by epizootic curves based on when and where carcasses were reported are affected by ... | 1992 | 1594933 |
| the serological response of the common seal (phoca vitulina) and the grey seal (halichoerus grypus) to phocine distemper virus as measured by a canine distemper virus neutralisation test. | the application of a canine distemper virus (cdv) neutralisation test revealed that antibody titres of up to 11,620 were present in the sera of common seals during the epizootic of phocine distemper in british waters. however, during the later stages of the epizootic and afterwards, a surprisingly high proportion of animals were still seronegative. titres of from 90 to 183 were common in diseased animals and were probably indicative of partial immunosuppression. a few animals with proven phocine ... | 1992 | 1594940 |
| morbillivirus infections of seals during the 1988 epidemic in the bay of heligoland: iii. transmission studies of cell culture-propagated phocine distemper virus in harbour seals (phoca vitulina) and a grey seal (halichoerus grypus): clinical, virological and serological results. | eight harbour seals (phoca vitulina), two of them seronegative, six seropositive against pdv and a seronegative grey seal (halichoerus grypus) were exposed to a low doses of a cell culture-propagated phocine distemper virus isolate (pdv 2558/han 88). an intranasal route of inoculation was chosen. clinical signs, resembling those of 1988's seal disease and seroconversion were observed in both seronegative harbour seals. one of them succumbed to the infection. the virus was not transmitted to anot ... | 1990 | 2267888 |
| diseases and environmental contaminants in seals from the baltic and the swedish west coast. | investigations have shown that baltic grey seal (halichoerus grypus) and ringed seal (phoca hispida) suffer from a disease complex described as a primary lesion in the adrenals causing secondary reactions in various other organs. studies on historical baltic grey seal skull bone material show that the prevalence of affected animals started to increase after world war ii. the disease complex explains the dramatic decrease in the baltic grey and ringed seal population during the 1960s and 1970s an ... | 1994 | 7973608 |
| phocine distemper in a harp seal (phoca groenlandica) from the gulf of st. lawrence, canada. | the first case of phocine distemper in a seal from canadian waters and the first case of clinical phocine distemper in a harp seal, phoca groenlandica, is reported. a two-month-old female harp seal stranded on prince edward island in may 1991. significant clinical findings were lethargy and severe conjunctivitis. pulmonary congestion was the main necropsy finding, and histological lesions included diffuse demyelinating nonsuppurative encephalitis and mild multifocal interstitial pneumonia. acido ... | 1993 | 8445769 |
| morbillivirus infections of aquatic mammals: newly identified members of the genus. | several disease outbreaks, which have caused the deaths of many thousands of seals and dolphins during the last decade, have now been attributed to infections with newly identified morbilliviruses. outbreaks in the late eighties amongst harbour seals (phoca vitulina) and grey seals (halichoerus grypus) in northwestern europe and amongst baikal seals (phoca sibirica) in siberia were caused by the newly discovered phocine distemper virus and by a strain of canine distemper virus, respectively. alt ... | 1995 | 8588316 |
| epizootiology of morbillivirus infection in north american harbor seals (phoca vitulina) and gray seals (halichoerus grypus). | a longitudinal study of morbillivirus infection among harbor (phoca vitulina) and gray (halichoerus grypus) seals on the atlantic coast of north america was carried out between 1980 and 1994. serology also was carried out on harbor seals from the pacific northwest coast collected in 1992 and 1993. the prevalence of morbillivirus neutralizing antibodies was significantly (p < 0.0001) higher in gray (73%, n = 296) than in harbor seals (37%, n = 387) from the atlantic. titers were significantly (p ... | 1995 | 8592380 |
| morbillivirus infections in aquatic mammals. | morbillivirus infections which were not documented in aquatic mammals until 1988, have caused at least five epizootics in these species during the last 10 years. affected populations include european harbour seals (phoca vitulina) and grey seals (halichoerus grypus) in 1998, baikal seals (phoca siberica) in siberia from 1987-1988, striped dolphins (stenella coeruleoalba) in the mediterranean sea from 1990-1992 and bottlenose dolphins (tursiops truncatus) along the eastern coast of the united sta ... | 1998 | 9807724 |
| identification and real-time pcr quantification of phocine distemper virus from two colonies of scottish grey seals in 2002. | the north sea european harbour seal (phoca vitulina) population has endured two phocine distemper virus (pdv) epidemics in 1988 and 2002. the grey seal (halichoerus grypus) is a sympatric seal species that shows little or no mortality from pdv. two scottish grey seal breeding colonies were sampled for evidence of pdv infection approximately 2 months after the peak of the 2002 epidemic. in both colonies, a proportion of mothers (13/109) and pups (6/84) tested positive for pdv in their leukocytes. ... | 2005 | 16099915 |
| the 1988 and 2002 phocine distemper virus epidemics in european harbour seals. | we present new and revised data for the phocine distemper virus (pdv) epidemics that resulted in the deaths of more than 23 000 harbour seals phoca vitulina in 1988 and 30,000 in 2002. on both occasions the epidemics started at the danish island of anholt in central kattegat, and subsequently spread to adjacent colonies in a stepwise fashion. however, this pattern was not maintained throughout the epidemics and new centres of infection appeared far from infected populations on some occasions: in ... | 2006 | 16532603 |
| relatedness of streptococcus equi subsp. zooepidemicus strains isolated from harbour seals (phoca vitulina) and grey seals (halichoerus grypus) of various origins of the north sea during 1988-2005. | the present study was designed to identify 15 beta-hemolytic streptococci isolated during a period between 1988 and 2005 from nine harbour seals and six grey seals from various origins of the north sea. all isolates were identified as streptococcus equi subsp. zooepidemicus. the bacteria were additionally investigated for relatedness by restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis of pcr amplified 16s-23s rdna intergenic spacer region and gene szp and by macrorestriction analysis of chromos ... | 2007 | 17169506 |
| [retrospective analysis of two phocine distemper epidemics in the north and baltic seas in 1988 and 2002]. | the relapse of the outbreak of the phocine distemper virus in the danish island of anholt this june, emphasizes the importance of the topic among experts. during the phocine distemper virus (pdv) epidemic in 1988, a total of 23,000 harbour seals (phoca vitulina) died. in 2002 a second outbreak of pdv resulted in the death of more than 30,000 harbor seals. both epidemics originated near the danish island of anholt and spread to adjacent colonies. additional centres of infection were observed in t ... | 2007 | 17763629 |
| in search of virus carriers of the 1988 and 2002 phocine distemper virus outbreaks in european harbour seals. | european harbour seal (phoca vitulina) populations decreased substantially during the phocine distemper virus (pdv) outbreaks of 1988 and 2002. different hypotheses have stated that various seals and terrestrial carnivore species might be the source of infection. to further analyse these hypotheses, grey (halichoerus grypus) and ringed (phoca hispida) seals, polar bears (ursus maritimus) and minks (mustela lutreola) were sampled from the north sea and east greenland coasts between 1988 and 2004 ... | 2008 | 17896075 |
| phocine distemper virus: current knowledge and future directions. | 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 ha ... | 2014 | 25533658 |
| development of a one-step duplex rt-qpcr for the quantification of phocine distemper virus. | worldwide, stranded marine mammals and the network personnel who respond to marine mammal mortality have provided much of the information regarding marine morbillivirus infections. an assay to determine the amount of virus present in tissue samples would be useful to assist in routine surveying of animal health and for monitoring large-scale die-off events. false negatives from poor-quality samples prevent determination of the true extent of infection, while only small amounts of tissue samples ... | 2015 | 25647591 |
| patterns of stranding and mortality in common seals (phoca vitulina) and grey seals (halichoerus grypus) in the netherlands between 1979 and 2008. | pathological examination of stranded marine mammals provides information on the causes of mortality in their populations. patterns of stranding and causes of death of dead-stranded seals on the dutch coast were analyzed over a 30-year period (1979-2008). stranding data (n=1,286) and post-mortem data (n=379) from common seals (phoca vitulina) and grey seals (halichoerus grypus) found dead, or that died before admission to rehabilitation, were obtained from the seal rehabilitation and research cen ... | 2012 | 22632685 |
| host and viral traits predict zoonotic spillover from mammals. | the majority of human emerging infectious diseases are zoonotic, with viruses that originate in wild mammals of particular concern (for example, hiv, ebola and sars). understanding patterns of viral diversity in wildlife and determinants of successful cross-species transmission, or spillover, are therefore key goals for pandemic surveillance programs. however, few analytical tools exist to identify which host species are likely to harbour the next human virus, or which viruses can cross species ... | 2017 | 28636590 |
| global mammal parasite database version 2.0. | illuminating the ecological and evolutionary dynamics of parasites is one of the most pressing issues facing modern science, and is critical for basic science, the global economy, and human health. extremely important to this effort are data on the disease-causing organisms of wild animal hosts (including viruses, bacteria, protozoa, helminths, arthropods, and fungi). here we present an updated version of the global mammal parasite database, a database of the parasites of wild ungulates (artioda ... | 2017 | 28273333 |