First Description of a Carnivore Protoparvovirus Associated to a Clinical Case in the Iberian Lynx (<em>Lynx pardinus</em>)

One of the main threats for the survival of the Iberian lynx are infectious diseases. Feline parvo-viruses cause an often fatal disease in cats and have been isolated from different species of Felidae and other carnivores. The present study is the first description of a parvoviral sequence isolated from the brain of an Iberian lynx which had died four weeks after been transferred to a quarantine centre from a hunting estate in Castilla-La-Mancha (southern border of the Iberian plateau). Four days prior to death he had developed anorexia and muscle weakness. The nucleotide sequence, 4,589 nt long (GenBank PP781551), was most proximal to that isolated from a Eurasian badger in Italy but showed also great homology with others from cats and other carnivores isolated in Spain and Italy, including that from a cat sequenced by us to elucidate the origin of the infection, which has not been clarified. The phylogenetic analysis of the capsid protein, VP2, which determines tropism and host range, confirmed that the lynx sequence was most proximal to feline than to canine parvoviruses, and was thus classified as Protoparvovirus carnivoran 1. More studies, in-cluding serology, are needed to understand the pathogenesis of this infection.