Ohno Yoshito, Inoshima Yasuo, Maeda Ken, Ishiguro Naotaka
Port of Nagoya Public Aquarium, 1-3 Minato-Machi, Minato-ku, Nagoya 455-0033, Japan.
Dis Aquat Organ. 2011 Nov 3;97(1):11-6. doi: 10.3354/dao02405.
A spotted seal Phoca largha with nodular and scab lesions on the whole body was brought to an aquarium in Nagoya, Japan. We extracted DNA from the lesions and used the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) method for detecting orthopoxvirus and parapoxvirus DNA. Parapoxvirus but not orthopoxvirus DNA was detected. The partial nucleotide sequence of the envelope gene was determined from the PCR product, and the sequence was seen to be closely related to 2 parapoxvirus strains from spotted seals in Alaska, showing 100% identity at the amino acid level, with one nucleotide substitution. Virus-neutralizing (VN) antibody against canine distemper virus (CDV) was not detected in the serum, indicating that this individual was not infected with CDV or phocine distemper virus (PDV), which both have a high mortality rate for marine mammals. These results suggest that the lesions were caused by infection with pinniped parapoxvirus, and that the viruses spread and are maintained within the habitat range or populations of spotted seals from the Bering Sea to the Japan Sea. This is the first report of molecular analysis of parapoxvirus in marine mammals in Japan.
一只全身出现结节和结痂病变的斑海豹（Phoca largha）被带到了日本名古屋的一家水族馆。我们从病变部位提取了DNA，并使用聚合酶链反应（PCR）方法检测正痘病毒和副痘病毒DNA。检测到了副痘病毒DNA，但未检测到正痘病毒DNA。从PCR产物中确定了包膜基因的部分核苷酸序列，该序列与来自阿拉斯加斑海豹的2株副痘病毒菌株密切相关，在氨基酸水平上显示出100%的同一性，仅有一个核苷酸替换。血清中未检测到针对犬瘟热病毒（CDV）的病毒中和（VN）抗体，这表明该个体未感染CDV或海豹瘟热病毒（PDV），这两种病毒对海洋哺乳动物的致死率都很高。这些结果表明，病变是由感染鳍足类副痘病毒引起的，并且这些病毒在从白令海到日本海的斑海豹栖息地范围或种群中传播并持续存在。这是日本海洋哺乳动物副痘病毒分子分析的首次报告。
