| Summary: | Samples taken from various species from 2004 to 2008 were analyzed for the presence of canine distemper virus (CDV), type 2 canine parvovirus (CPV2), or feline panleukopenia virus (FPV). The samples were collected from animals showing signs of clinical illness (clinical samples), or were collected from animals that succumbed following clinical signs suggestive of a viral infection, or when pathological changes indicative of such a disease were found during necropsy (necropsy samples). In case of clinical samples, the diagnosis was based on various molecular techniques applying polymerase chain reaction (PCR) based techniques, while in case of succumbed animals a wide spectrum of diagnostic methods was employed, such as macroscopic and routine light microscopic investigations, electron microscopy, and PCR-based techniques concluding with nucleic acid sequencing and subsequent phylogenetic analysis. The genetic analysis of Hungarian CDVs revealed the presence of strains belonging to several lineages: European, Arctic and European wildlife. The virus strains clustered in the Arctic group of CDVs were also demonstrated to be responsible for the endemic infection at the Dog Shelter of the City Council of Budapest. On the other hand, CDV infection was demonstrated in several other species from Hungary: fox (Vulpes vulpes), raccoon (Procyon lotor) and ferret (Mustela putorius furo). A restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) assay was also developed for the fast differentiation of vaccine and wild-type CDVs. The practical trials of the PsiI-based RFLP revealed that the virus strain present in one of the currently used vaccines reacted as a wild-type strain. Following the diagnostic PCR reactions, out of the 214 analyzed samples 58 (27.1 %) proved to be positive for CDV. Based on the subsequent nucleic acid sequencing and phylogenetic analysis, the incriminated strain was not clustered in the group of vaccine strains (America-1), as expected based on the product description provided by the manufacturer, but it ...
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