In search of virus carriers of the 1988 and 2002 phocine distemper virus outbreaks in European harbour seals

Authors :: G. Müller
Wolfgang Baumgärtner
Rune Dietz
Christian Sonne
Tero Härkönen
Sophie Brasseur
Peter J.H. Reijnders
Ursula Siebert
Mihaela Kreutzer
Erik W Born
Robert Kreutzer
Source :: Archives of Virology 153 (2008) 1, Aarhus University, Kreutzer, M, Kreutzer, R, Siebert, U, Müller, G, Reijnders, P, Brasseur, S, Härkönen, T, Dietz, R, Sonne, C, Born, E W & Baumgärtner, W 2008, ' In search of virus carriers of the 1988 and 2002 phocine distemper virus outbreaks in European harbour seals ', Archives of Virology, vol. 153, no. 1, pp. 187-192 . < http://www.springerlink.com/content/54r4t53477571102/?p=b0c039f4b4f84641b78116834a0d2812&pi=17 >, Archives of Virology, 153(1), 187-192
Publication Year :: 2007
Publisher :: Springer Science and Business Media LLC, 2007.
Abstract: 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 and investigated by RT-PCR using a panmorbillivirus primer pair. However, all samples were negative for morbillivirus nucleic acid.

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