Aw. Sainsbury et al., Grey squirrels have high seroprevalence to a parapoxvirus associated with deaths in red squirrels, ANIM CONSER, 3, 2000, pp. 229-233
The population of red squirrels (Sciurus vulgar-is) in the British Isles is
in decline and is being supplanted by the grey squirrel (Sciurus carolinen
sis). It has been suggested that parapoxvirus-associated disease has caused
significant mortality in red squirrels and that grey squirrels are the sou
rce of the virus. A direct enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was de
veloped for the measurement of antibody to squirrel parapoxvirus. We tested
140 sera from red squirrels and 223 from grey squirrels from different pop
ulations in the UK. A high percentage (61%) of apparently healthy grey squi
rrels, were found to have been exposed to the parapoxvirus. Only 2.86% (4/1
40) of red squirrels had antibody and three of these animals had parapoxvir
us-associated disease. We postulate that the grey squirrel may act as a res
ervoir host for the virus.