How to Update the Number of Canine Distemper Virus Genotypes Based on Official Genbank® Data? |Biomedgrid

The Canine Distemper Virus (CDV) is the causative agent of a complex infection present in a wide range of hosts. It is a pathogen that affects various orders of species, including primates, cetaceans, and various families of carnivores. It should be noted that the virus can be transmitted to wildlife, including aquatic carnivores, through contact with domestic canids. This route of transmission is increasingly common, due to the fact that domestic species invade the habitat of wild species, which facilitates contact between them. The clinical diagnosis of the disease is complex due to the wide range of signs present, which requires confirmation by means of laboratory tests. The reference test is the Reverse Transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR), with which the viral strains have also been characterized based on the analysis of the H gene, which is the most variable. Thanks to RT-PCR, the presence of at least 14 circulating VDC lineages in various hosts around the world has been determined, of which two have been described in Chile, these being the America-1 and Europe-1/South America- lineages. 1. In the present work, all the available sequences of the VDC H gene available in the Genbank® will be reviewed with the intention of verifying, through the construction of a phylogenetic tree, the appearance of new lineages or if the situation remains as described by Ke and collaborators in 2015. Undoubtedly, the results will provide information on the origins, evolution and spatiotemporal distribution of the virus.