Phylogenetic analysis of canine distemper virus detected in Chile

Emerging infectious diseases constitute one of the biggest problems facing human and animal health, and biodiversity conservation. Canine distemper virus has been strongly called attention in this regard, since it possesses a high prevalence in the canine population worldwide. Canine distemper is a systemic viral disease, highly contagious, one of the major causes of death in domestic dogs and other carnivores. In recent years, the incidence of canine distemper seems to have increased, documenting the occurrence of new and unusual strains. The reasons that explain these changes and their impact on the epidemiology of the virus still unknown. Canine distemper virus appears genetically heterogeneous, markedly in the hemagglutinin protein, which shows geographic patterns of diversification that are useful to monitoring the molecular epidemiology of canine distemper virus. In this work was detected hemagglutinin gene (H gene) of canine distemper virus using the Reverse Transcription PCR method, was sequenced the amplified DNA fragment and this nucleotide sequence was included in the phylogenetic analysis for the gene H using known sequences and official of canine distemper virus, including vaccine strains used for the prevention of disease (Genbank®). The results show that in Chile would be at least two of the lineages known for canine distemper virus: Europe and America-1.