Emerging Infectious Disease ISSN: 1080-6059

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††, and Susan Wilson‡‡

Author affiliations: *Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, Belfast, Northern Ireland, UK; †Seal Rehabilitation and Research Center, Pieterburen, The Netherlands; ‡Institute of Zoology, Regents Park, London, UK; §Institute of Animal Health, Pirbright, Surrey, UK; ¶Geological Institute of the Azerbaijan Republic Academy of Sciences, Baku, Azerbaijan; #Sea Mammal Research Unit, University of St. Andrews, Fife, UK; **Laboratory of Virus Ecology, Institute of Microbiology and Virology, Almaty, Kazakhstan; ††Akademgorodok, Institute of Zoology, Almaty, Kazakhstan; ‡‡Caspian Environment Programme Ecotoxicology Project, Portaferry, Northern Ireland, UK

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Figure 3

Phylogenetic analysis of P gene fragments from Caspian seals and representative members of the genus Morbillivirus. Sequences of samples from Caspian seals were generated in this study. Other sequences were obtained from GenBank. RPV, rinderpest virus strain RBOK (#X68311); MV, measles virus vaccine strain Edmonston (#M89920); DMV, dolphin morbillivirus (#Z47758); PMV, porpoise morbillivirus strain 53; phocine distemper virus, PDV (#X75960); and canine distemper virus, CDV strain Bussell (#Z5415

Figure 3. Phylogenetic analysis of P gene fragments from Caspian seals and representative members of the genus Morbillivirus. Sequences of samples from Caspian seals were generated in this study. Other sequences were obtained from GenBank. RPV, rinderpest virus strain RBOK (#X68311); MV, measles virus vaccine strain Edmonston (#M89920); DMV, dolphin morbillivirus (#Z47758); PMV, porpoise morbillivirus strain 53; phocine distemper virus, PDV (#X75960); and canine distemper virus, CDV strain Bussell (#Z54156). Seal numbers refer to P gene fragments from Caspian seals with identification numbers corresponding to those in the Table. A maximum likelihood tree was generated on P gene nucleotide sequences by means of the DNAML program of the Phylip 3.75 software package with 100 bootstraps and three jumbles.

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