Phocine Distemper virus

"Phocine Distemper Virus"

Classification

Phocine distemper virus is a species of ssRNA negative-strand virus in the order Mononegavirales, family Paramyxoviridae, and genus Morbillivirus (14).

Introduction

Phocine distemper virus (PDV) is a pathogen of the Morbillivirus genus of viruses that infect a number of mammals (15). PDV more specifically infects pinnipeds (seals, walruses, etc.) and has caused several epidemics in the last one hundred years. In 2002, an outbreak of PDV outbreak killed between 22 ,000 and 30, 000 harbour seals (40% of regional population), one of the largest recorded mass mortality event in marine mammals (18). The virus structure (genome, protein makeup, etc.) has been characterized in the past fifty years, but the dynamics of PDV in the environment, its ecological significance and mode of action, is less clear (1). Active investigation of the virus is crucial considering the impact PDV has had on pinniped populations across the globe (10).