Evaluación post mortem de la diseminación de las variantes del Protoparvovirus carnívoro 1 en perros afectados por parvovirosis canina

Abstract

Infection in dogs (Canis lupus familiaris) caused by Protoparvovirus carnivore 1 (PPVC-1) and its antigenic variants (2a, 2b and 2c) can spread through all tissues and manifest gastroenteric, cardiac and nervous. This is due to the tropism of the virus for mitotically active cells that favor its replication. With this background, the present study aimed to identify the presence of PPVC-1 genetic material and to evaluate the frequency of antigenic variants in the central nervous system and cardiac tissues of dogs that died with a diagnosis of canine Parvovirosis. A total of 108 samples were collected; rectal swabs (n = 27), intestinal (n = 27), cardiac (n = 27) and nervous (n = 27) tissue fragments. The total DNA obtained from the samples was subjected to two PCR assays, one as a process control and the other for identification of PPVC-1 genetic material. It was possible to amplify PPVC-1 genetic material in 87.5% of processed swabs, confirming infection in 21 dogs. Infection was also identified in heart and brain tissues, but not in intestine. Twenty nervous tissue samples (74.1%) and nine cardiac tissue samples (42.9%) were positive for PPVC-1 from which 20 amplicons were selected for sequencing. From sequence analysis, the PVC-2a antigenic variant was successfully identified in 100 % of amplicons of nervous (n = 16) and cardiac (n = 4) origin.