The Prevalence of a Group 2 Coronavirus in Dogs in Japan

Abstract

ABSTRACT. Canine coronavirus (CCoV) has been reported to cause acute diarrhea mainly in young pups. CCoV and feline coronavirus are classified as group 1 coronaviruses. However, it has recently been reported in the United Kingdom that the group 2 coronavirus gene, which is more closely related to the bovine coronavirus (BCoV) and human coronavirus strain OC43, has been detected in respiratory tract tissue samples from dogs with respiratory disease. In this study, we examined the prevalence of antibodies to group 2 coronaviruses in domestic dogs and cats in Japan by a neutralization test using BCoV. All 104 feline serum samples were negative (<1:5) for antiBCoV antibodies. In contrast, of the 898 canine serum samples, 160 (17.8%) were positive for anti-BCoV antibodies, and the antibody titers ranged from 1:5 to more than 1:640, with 1:160 being the most frequent. No correlation was found between the titers of the antiBCoV and anti-CCoV antibodies in the 198 serum samples of dogs with a known history of CCoV vaccination. We amplified, by RT-PCR, group 2 coronavirus-specific hemagglutination/esterase genes in the oral swabs of a total of 10 young pups presenting with or having recovered from respiratory signs, or having anti-BCoV antibodies, with the result that 2 pups were positive for the hemagglutination/ esterase genes. These results strongly suggest that an unknown group 2 coronavirus as well as the known enteritis-causing CCoV (group 1 coronavirus) is prevalent among domestic dogs in Japan. KEY WORDS: bovine coronavirus, canine coronavirus, group 2 coronavirus, respiratory disease.

Etiologic Study on Upper Respiratory Infections of Household Dogs

“…Group 2 CRCoV, recently isolated in England as a new ITB pathogen closely related to bovine coronavirus [20], was again found to be associated with the diseased puppy in the present study. CRCoV infection was already confirmed in Japanese domestic dogs both seroepidemiologically [26] and molecular epidemiologically [43]. The present No.…”

The Infectivity and Pathogenicity of a Group 2 Bovine Coronavirus in Pups

“…Erles et al [5] designated this unknown group 2 coronavirus canine respiratory coronavirus (CRCoV), which is considered to be one of the major pathogens of canine infectious respiratory disease (CRID), like canine parainfluenza virus (CPIV), canine adenovirus type 2 (CAV-2), and the bacterium Bordetella bronchiseptica [3][4][5]. We also reported that the known group 1 coronaviruses (CCoV) that cause enteritis and an unknown group 2 coronavirus were prevalent in domestic dogs in Japan [8]. Compatible results in a survey of dogs in Japan for group 2 canine coronavirus infection were also reported by Yachi and Mochizuki [18].…”

A Serological Survey of Canine Respiratory Coronavirus and Canine Influenza Virus in Korean Dogs

“…To date, few CRCoV strains have been isolated from a small number of countries: the United Kingdom (n=2), Japan (n=2), Italy (n=1), and Korea (n=3) [1,6,12,17]. Antibodies against CRCoV are common in canine populations in the United Kingdom (36.2%), Republic of Ireland (30.3%), USA (54.7%), Japan (17.8%), Italy (32.1%), and New Zealand (29%) [4,9,10,13].…”