TY - JOUR T1 - Epidemiology of Pestivirus infection in wild ungulates of the French South Alps. JF - Vet Microbiol Y1 - 2011 A1 - Martin, Claire A1 - Letellier, Carine A1 - Ann Brigitte Cay A1 - Gauthier, Dominique A1 - Jean, Nicolas A1 - Shaffii, Anahita A1 - Saegerman, Claude KW - Age factors KW - Animals KW - Animals, Wild KW - Antibodies, Viral KW - Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay KW - Female KW - France KW - Male KW - Neutralization Tests KW - Pestivirus KW - Pestivirus Infections KW - Risk Factors KW - Ruminants KW - Seroepidemiologic Studies AB -

Inter-species transmission is often incriminated in the epidemiology of Pestivirus diseases. The purpose of this study was to investigate the prevalence of Pestivirus in some mountain wild ungulates and to determine their role in Pestivirus transmission, as mountain pastures are a place where cohabitations between wild and domestic ungulates are particularly high. Between 2003 and 2007, a longitudinal epidemiological study was carried out on hunted ungulates in the French Hautes-Alpes department. Pestivirus-specific antibodies against p80 protein (also named NS3) common to all Bovine Viral Diarrhea Virus (BVDV) and Border Disease Virus (BDV) were found in 45.9% (95% confidence interval [CI95%]: 40.5-51.3%) of the 343 tested chamois (Rupicapra rupicapra). In addition, mouflons (Ovis gmelinii musimon) were shown for the first time to be strongly infected (61.1%; CI95%: 38.6-83.6) by a Pestivirus. These serological ELISA results were confirmed by comparative virus neutralization tests, performed on seven Pestivirus strains by using 15 seropositive samples. The highest antibody titers were directed against 2 BDV strains (Av and 33s strains), rather than BDV-4, a strain responsible for Pyrenean-chamois epizooties. Virus neutralization tests confirm a BDV circulation in wild ungulates in the French South Alps. However, no Pestivirus RNA was detected by reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reaction in serum and spleen samples from seronegative animals and no virus was isolated from those samples either. Efforts should be made to improve the protocol in order to be able to isolate and characterize the local strain. Finally, the oldness (age) and femaleness (gender) increase the risk of seroconversion in chamois.

VL - 147 CP - 3-4 U1 - http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20709472?dopt=Abstract M3 - 10.1016/j.vetmic.2010.07.010 ER -