First Report of Skunk Amdoparvovirus (Species Carnivore amdoparvovirus 4) in Europe in a Captive Striped Skunk (Mephitis mephitis)

Franziska K Kaiser; Madeleine de le Roi; Wendy K Jo; Ingo Gerhauser; Viktor Molnár; Albert D M E Osterhaus; Wolfgang Baumgärtner; Martin Ludlow

doi:10.3390/v15051087

First Report of Skunk Amdoparvovirus (Species Carnivore amdoparvovirus 4) in Europe in a Captive Striped Skunk (Mephitis mephitis)

Viruses. 2023 Apr 28;15(5):1087. doi: 10.3390/v15051087.

Authors

Franziska K Kaiser¹, Madeleine de le Roi², Wendy K Jo¹, Ingo Gerhauser², Viktor Molnár³, Albert D M E Osterhaus¹, Wolfgang Baumgärtner², Martin Ludlow¹

Affiliations

¹ Research Center for Emerging Infections and Zoonoses, University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover, Foundation, 30559 Hannover, Germany.
² Department of Pathology, University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover, Foundation, 30559 Hannover, Germany.
³ Hannover Adventure Zoo, 30175 Hannover, Germany.

Abstract

Skunk amdoparvovirus (Carnivore amdoparvovirus 4, SKAV) is closely related to Aleutian mink disease virus (AMDV) and circulates primarily in striped skunks (Mephitis mephitis) in North America. SKAV poses a threat to mustelid species due to reported isolated infections of captive American mink (Neovison vison) in British Columbia, Canada. We detected SKAV in a captive striped skunk in a German zoo by metagenomic sequencing. The pathological findings are dominated by lymphoplasmacellular inflammation and reveal similarities to its relative Carnivore amdoparvovirus 1, the causative agent of Aleutian mink disease. Phylogenetic analysis of the whole genome demonstrated 94.80% nucleotide sequence identity to a sequence from Ontario, Canada. This study is the first case description of a SKAV infection outside of North America.

Keywords: next generation sequencing; parvovirus; skunk amdoparvovirus; striped skunk; virus surveillance.

Publication types

Case Reports
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Aleutian Mink Disease*
Animals
British Columbia
Europe / epidemiology
Mephitidae*
Mink
Phylogeny

Grants and funding

This research was funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation)-398066876/GRK 2485/1-VIPER-GRK. This open access publication was funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation)-491094227 “Open Access Publication Funding” and the University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover, Foundation.