How common parvovirus and adenovirus infections are in dogs at a vet

Abstract

Canine parvovirus-2 (CPV-2) and canine adenovirus-1 (CAV-1) are the major viral agents causing enteric diseases in dogs worldwide despite several control measures. The objective of the present study was to investigate the hospital based occurrence of CPV-2 and CAV-1 in dogs in teaching veterinary clinical complex of northern India from August, 2017 to March, 2019. Faecal samples were collected from the dogs with gastroenteritis and screened for CPV-2 and CAV-1 infections by polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Simultaneously, data regarding age, breed, sex and vaccination status were also recorded from the affected dogs. A total of 216 faecal samples were collected during the study period out of which 90 (41.67%), 12 (5.56%) and 26 (12.04%) samples were found to be positive for CPV-2, CAV-1 and co-infection, respectively. The analysis of positive samples revealed that the occurrence of CPV-2 and CAV-1 infection was highest in young dogs of the age group 0-3 months (CPV-2=44.44% and CAV-1=33.33%), Labrador Retriever breed (CPV-2=35.55% and CAV-1=50.0%) and unvaccinated dogs (CPV-2=68.88% and CAV-1=83.33%). Sex wise analysis revealed that the positivity of CPV-2 infection was higher in female (51.11%) than male dogs (48.88%) but, no such difference was noticed with respect to CAV-1 infection. It is concluded that the occurrence of CPV-2 and CAV-1 infections was very high in the study region and proper control measures are recommended. However, analysis of large number of samples including those from the field are required for further validation of the study as well as sequential analysis of CPV-2 to ensure the prevalent field antigenic variant of CPV-2 in the region.