Exclusive circulation of canine parvovirus type 2c in the Guadalajara metropolitan area in western Mexico: a five-year study

Abstract

Canine parvovirus type 2 (CPV-2) infection in dogs is associated with severe gastroenteritis, bloody diarrhea, and vomiting, resulting in high rates of death, especially in unvaccinated puppies within the first months of age. There are three variants, called CPV-2a, CPV-2b, and CPV-2c, co-circulating worldwide. Our group previously reported that the only circulating CPV-2 variant in the Guadalajara metropolitan area in western Mexico was type 2c. Now, a five-year study was performed in order to investigate the possible dominance of CPV-2c in our region. Rectal swabs were collected from 146 dogs with clinical gastroenteritis from May 2014 to August 2019 at the Veterinary Hospital of the University of Guadalajara. Of these, 90 dogs tested positive for canine parvovirus by PCR. Most of the infected dogs with CPV-2 had a partial or incomplete vaccination status (n = 88, 97.8%). Approximately 65% (n = 59) of them were mixed-breed dogs, 77.8% (n = 70) were under 6 months of age, and 37.8% (n = 34) of them died from clinical complications. RFLP analysis of amplicons derived from the vp2 gene showed that all 90 DNA samples corresponded to CPV-2c, with no evidence of the presence of CPV-2a or CPV-2b variants. Twenty-nine of the 90 DNA samples were selected for amplification of a portion of the vp2 gene, and sequencing of these amplicons showed that all of them had the sequence GAA at codon 426, encoding the amino acid glutamic acid, which is characteristic of CPV-2c. Phylogenetic analysis showed that the CPV-2c sequences were related to those of viruses from Europe and South America. The present study indicates that CPV-2c is still the only variant circulating in the dog population of the Guadalajara metropolitan area.