NO EVIDENCE FOR A ROLE OF MODIFIED-LIVE VIRUS-VACCINES IN THE EMERGENCE OF CANINE PARVOVIRUS

In this study the early evolution and potential origins of canine parv ovirus (CPV) were examined. We cloned and sequenced the VP2 capsid pro tein genes of three German CPV strains isolated in 1979-1980, as well as two feline panleukopenia virus (FPV) vaccine viruses that were prev iously shown to have some restriction enzyme cleavage sites in common with CPV. Other partial VP2 gene sequences were obtained by amplifying CPV DNA from paraffin-embedded tissues of dogs which were early parvo virus disease cases in Germany in 1978-1979. Sequences were analysed w ith respect to their evolutionary relationships to other CPV and FPV i solates. Those analyses did not support the hypothesis that CPV emerge d as a variant of an FPV vaccine virus. Neither did they reveal ancest ral sequences among the very early CPV isolates examined. Other possib le sources for the origin of CPV are examined, including the involveme nt of viruses from wild carnivores.