Magic™ Anti-CDV Monoclonal antibody, Clone N29723DE3

Predicting the impact of disease epidemics on wildlife populations is one of the twenty-first century's main conservation challenges. The long-term demographic responses of wildlife populations to epidemics and the life history and social traits modulating these responses are generally unknown, particularly for K-selected social species. Here we develop a stage-structured matrix population model to provide a long-term projection of demographic responses by a keystone social predator, the spotted hyena, to a virulent epidemic of canine distemper virus (CDV) in the Serengeti ecosystem in 1993/1994 and predict the recovery time for the population following the epidemic. Using two decades of longitudinal data from 625 known hyenas, we demonstrate that although the reduction in population size was moderate, i.e., the population showed high ecological 'resistance' to the novel CDV genotype present, recovery was slow. Interestingly, high-ranking females accelerated the population's recovery, thereby lessening the impact of the epidemic on the population.

Canine distemper virus (CDV) is a global multi-host pathogen of wildlife. Toll-like receptors (TLR) are key recognition structures of the innate immune system. To investigate host susceptibility to CDV, the presence of non-synonymous single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the coding regions of TLR 2, 3, 4, 7 and 8 genes were investigated in two recent CDV outbreaks in South Africa. The first case consisted of five lions (Panthera leo), diagnosed with CDV. Four of the lions died following exposure to the virus. The second case consisted of six African wild dogs (Lycaon pictus) with CDV and one surviving African wild dog. TLR diversity showed a higher rate of polymorphism in the African wild dogs within each of the TLR loci compared to lions. A single amino acid change (Met527Thr) within the leucine rich repeat of TLR2 was observed in the single surviving lioness. This alteration resulted in a non-polar to polar group change, potentially influencing the expression and function of TLR2. No specific amino acid alterations could be associated with CDV susceptibility in the African wild dogs. This study provides a critical starting point in elucidating the mechanism involved in host immunity and therefore susceptibility towards CDV infection. (C) 2017 Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Saugetierkunde. Published by Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.