Introduction of Asian canine parvovirus in Europe through dog importation

Abstract

Summary Canine parvovirus (CPV) is an important infectious agent of domestic and wild carnivores, responsible for severe and often fatal haemorrhagic gastroenteritis and leukopenia. This paper reports the genomic characterization of a CPV strain collected from a dog recently imported to Italy from Thailand. The virus was detected in all tissue samples collected. The whole genome encompassing the two open reading frames encoding for non‐structural (NS1/NS2) and structural (VP1/VP2) proteins was amplified and sequenced. On the basis of genetic analysis of the VP2 gene, the isolate was characterized as CPV‐2c, but it presented genetic signatures typical of Asian strains. Sequence analysis revealed the presence of amino acid changes never observed in European CPV‐2c strains (NS1: Ile60Val, Tyr544Phe, Glu545Val, Leu630Pro; VP2: Ala5Gly, Phe267Tyr, Tyr324Ile, Gln370Arg). By phylogenetic analysis of full‐length VP2 gene, the analysed strain clustered together with Asian viruses. Therefore, a possible introduction of the virus from Asia through the imported dog was suggested, thus confirming the important role of movement of dogs in the global spread of viruses. In addition, full‐length genome analysis could help better trace the spread of canine viruses through different continents.

Nearly full‐length genome characterization of canine parvovirus strains circulating in Nigeria

“…Indeed, the recent evidence of specific aa changes, as well as the divergence from previous circulating strains, does not allow to rule out the possible introduction of these strains from other countries, highlighting the need for further studies on CPV whole genome in different geographical areas. This suggestion is supported by the evidence of genetic signatures typical of CPV or other canine viruses with different origins (Decaro, Campolo, et al, ; Martella et al, ; Mira, Purpari, Di Bella, et al, ; Mira, Purpari, Lorusso, et al, ), probably connected with the trading and transport of dogs between countries and continents.…”

“…The VP1 aa change was due to a nt change in the second base of the codon (VP1 a347g) and was common to CPV strains of different origin, irrespective of the CPV antigenic variant. Moreover, the VP2 aa change was due to a nt change in the second base of the codon (VP2 c14g), but this change was common only to CPV strains of Asian origin (Mira, Purpari, et al, ; Mira, Purpari, Lorusso, et al, ; Wang et al, ; Zhuang et al, ). The potential biological relevance of these changes has not been described yet and needs to be assessed in further studies.…”

“…As most recent Asian CPVs, the Nigerian strains displayed other three aa substitutions in the VP2 sequence (F267Y, Y324I and Q370R). While change at aa residue 324 is predominant in all three CPV variants in Asia (Geng et al, ; Yi, Tong, Cheng, Song, & Cheng, ; Zhao et al, ; Zhou et al, ), the other changes have been less frequently observed, mainly in China since 2013, and change Q370R has been detected only in CPV‐2c strains (Geng et al, ; Guo et al, ; Mira, Purpari, et al, ; Mira, Purpari, Lorusso, et al, ; Wang et al, ; Zhuang et al, ). These aa substitutions are located in the greatest variable VP2 GH loop, comprised between aa 267 and 498, but while residue 267 is not exposed on the capsid surface (Chiang, Wu, Chiou, Chang, & Lin, ) and may not affect the antigenicity of CPV (Xu et al, ), residues 324 and 370 could have immunological implications or biological relevance.…”

“…), as previously described (Mira, Dowgier, et al, ) with minor modifications (Mira, Canuti, et al, ). After electrophoresis on agarose gel, amplicons were purified and submitted for direct Sanger sequencing with a set of primers, as previously described (Mira, Purpari, Lorusso, et al, ). Sequences were assembled, analysed and submitted to nBLAST program (Zhang, Schwartz, Wagner, & Miller, ) to search related sequences into public domain databases.…”

Genome sequence characterization of canine parvoviruses prevalent in the Sichuan province of China

“…It has been speculated that this substitution may play an important role in transmission and infection (Xu et al., ). The Tyr324Ile mutation in CPV‐2a strains has been widely reported in China (Han et al., ; Xu et al., ; Yi et al., ; Zhang et al., ), South Korea (Jeoung, Ahn, & Kim, ), Thailand (Phromnoi, Sirinarumitr, & Sirinarumitr, ), Uruguay (Maya et al., ), Japan (Soma, Taharaguchi, Ohinata, Ishii, & Hara, ), Taiwan (Lin et al., ), India (Mukhopadhyay et al., ), and Italy (Mira, Purpari, et al., ). In the CPV‐2 VP2 protein, theTyr324Ile mutation is adjacent to residue 323, which affects binding to canine transferring receptors, resulting in changes in the host range of canine parvovirus (Hueffer et al., ).…”