Virology

Biography

Biography: Rajesh Kumar Joshi

Abstract

Canine parvovirus (CPV) represents a well-documented example highlighting the emergence of a new virus through cross-species transmission. CPV emerged in the mid-1970s as a new pathogen of dogs and has since become endemic in the global dog population. Despite widespread vaccination, CPV has remained a widespread disease of dogs and new genetic and antigenic variants have arisen and sometimes reached high frequency in certain geographic regions or throughout the world. Members of the parvovirus genus infect a wide variety of mammalian hosts and are characterized by more or less strict host specificity. Carnivore parvovirus only infects actively dividing host cells. The clinical manifestations of disease are strongly dependent on the age of the host and the symptoms are similar in wild as well as domestic animals. Most cases of CPV infections are caused by a genetic alteration of the original canine parvovirus CPV- 2b. There are a variety of risk factors that can increase a dog’s susceptibility to the disease, but mainly, the virus is transmitted either by direct contact with an infected dog, or indirectly, by the fecal-oral route. Heavy concentrations of the parvovirus are found in the feces of an infected dog. In spite of a large number of vaccine strains and vaccination regimens are in use, there is a sharp rise in the cases of parvovirus infection in vaccinated dogs. Such infections are mostly reported to have severe symptoms and high mortality. These reports suggest the requirement for a thorough study of the clinical field isolates to find out the reasons of such changes at virus level.