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Aleutian disease is one of the most serious disease entities affecting mink farms. The disease causes significant economic losses in mink breeding countries. The aim of the study was to optimize a diagnostic test based on duplex PCR to enable detection of Aleutian disease virus in biological and environmental samples.

Canine parvovirus type 2 is one of the most common causes of death among puppies. Despite preventive vaccination, the disease continues to be diagnosed. The aim of the study was to provide a molecular characterization of CPV-2 isolates found in southeastern Poland. Genetic CPV-2 material was isolated from the blood (n=10) and feces (n=50) of infected dogs. The presence of CPV-2 was confirmed by amplification of sequences coding both VP1 and VP2 protein. The products of the PCR reaction with primers amplifying VP2 protein were sequenced and used for genotyping. Bioinformatics analysis of the sequenced PCR product was performed to determine the phylogenetic relationships with variants recorded in the public databases. Based on the analysis of polymorphism in the nucleotide sequence 7 nucleotide variants were detected and assigned into four amino acid groups. Representatives of three groups contained asparagine at amino acid position 426 of the VP2 protein, which is characteristic of CPV-2a. The variant from the fourth group belonged to type CPV-2b. CPV-2a is the dominant antigenic type of CPV-2 in Poland. The pathogen’s high degree of polymorphism is manifested not only by the presence of numerous variants within the type, but also by the presence of representatives of type CPV-2b. Further studies of the molecular epidemiology of CPV-2 are necessary to optimize the effectiveness of preventive measures.

The gene IGF1 has been shown to have a significant influence on the size of individuals, including animals of the Canidae family. In this study we determined SNP mutations of the IGF1 gene in dogs, raccoon dogs and farmed and free-living red foxes from Poland and Canada. No SNP mutations were noted in dogs or raccoon dogs, but a total of 14 single nucleotide polymorphisms were identified in foxes, including 12 substitutions, as well as one new mutation missense variant (exon 6) in wild Polish foxes and one synonymous mutation variant in wild foxes from Canada. We identified specific SNP profiles characteristic only for farmed foxes and only for wild foxes, as well as specific SNP profiles or wild foxes from North America (Canada) and from Europe (Poland).

Gen MYO15A je uključen u stvaranje proteina iz grupe motornih proteina - miozina. Miozin XVA je lociran u unutrašnjem uhu, hipofi zi i drugim tkivima, i značajno utiče na slušni proces. Mutacije u ovom genu izazivaju supstitucije aminokiselina u konzervisanom motornom domenu lanca miozina, što dovodi do skraćenja stereocilija slušnih ćelija, a kao posledica dolazi do poremećaja funkcije XVA miozina. Postavljena je istraživačka hipoteza koja je pretpostavljala da mutacije u genu koji je odgovoran za slušni proces kod životinja familije Canidae mogu da izazovu hipoakustiku kao i značajne promene u ponašanju pasa, od povučenosti i straha do agresivnosti. Ispitivanjem je determinisan SNP polimorfi zam u fragmentu gena MYO15A koji može da dovede do poremećaja sluha kako kod divljih tako i kod farmski uzgajanih životinja familije Canidae.