Disease
Ecology
Because CDV appears to cause
disease in many carnivores, the domestic
dog may act as a reservoir host for many wildlife species. Thus, the
disease ecology of CDV may have serious conservation implications if it
infects threatened or endangered carnivore populations. In 2004,
a female Amur tiger (Panthera tigris altaica) died due to infection
with CDV in the Russian Far East. Domestic dogs are widely
seropositive to CDV in the area and transmission to the tiger was
likely from contact with a dog. Epidemiological models of the
impact of CDV on Panthera tigris altaica show anywhere from no effect
to large declines in the remaining population of only 500 individuals,
depending on rates of tiger-tiger contact and dog-tiger contact (1).
1.
2.
The Serengeti game reserve in
Tanzania, Africa is one of the largest
wildlife areas left in the world and is known in part for its
well-documented and studied lion prides. Here, thousands of antelope,
wildebeests, and other herbivores carry on a daily life and death
struggle with the hyenas, jackals, cheetahs, and lions that inhabit the
reserve. As there are many carnivores in the park, there are many
potential mechanisms by which the virus could have spread to
lions. It is proposed that hyenas were the most likely vectors of
the virus because they travel great distances and intermingle with both
lions and domestic dogs at separate kill and scavenge sites within and
without the park. Nomadic lions (not attached to any pride) could also
have contributed to CDV dissemination. The high densities of these
susceptible carnivores at kill sites could have provided an ideal
environment for CDV amplification and transmission. Further
research into the prevalence of different carnivore populations would
yield valuable likely modes of transmission among carnivores(2).
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