About This Project

Infectious diseases like canine distemper virus (CDV) threaten wildlife, causing outbreaks with high death rates, especially in canids. Despite this, research on CDV’s population-level effects and outbreak reports in Brazil remains limited. Nearly all Brazilian canid species have been infected with this virus. This project addresses this gap by assessing CDV prevalence in canids using tests and integrating spatial and temporal analyses to support effective control strategies for CDV.

Ask the Scientists

What is the context of this research?

We know that human activities directly affect biodiversity; and infectious diseases are an emerging cause of wildlife decline and extinction. Among these diseases, the canine distemper virus (CDV) has the potential to cause outbreaks with high mortality rates, especially among carnivores of the Canidae family.

CDV is caused by a virus belonging to the family Paramyxoviridae, genus Morbillivirus. This disease poses a threat to the conservation, being responsible for significant epizootics and severe population declines.

Despite this scenario, there are few studies on population effects in Brazilian canids, and there are no outbreaks recorded in Brazil. However, canids frequently die in institutions that receive wild animals with signs of CDV.

This project aims to evaluate the prevalence and incidence of CDV in free-living populations of Canidae in the Cerrado, including the maned wolf, crab-eating fox, hoary fox, and free-ranging dogs.

What is the significance of this project?

Infectious diseases play a natural role in regulating wildlife populations, but certain pathogens can pose serious threats to conservation, especially when combined with environmental factors such as habitat loss. The presence of domestic animals can intensify this risk by facilitating disease transmission to native species, making comprehensive monitoring of wild and domestic animals in overlapping areas essential.

Effective strategies include epidemiological surveillance, aiming at mitigating pathogen spillovers to promote the protection of biodiversity, animal health, and also public health.

Testing of wild animals for CDV in Brazil is still rare and costly, with a lack of routine laboratories for CDV. Therefore, addressing knowledge gaps, such as in situ monitoring, validation of rapid tests, serological assessments, and interspecific transmission and control strategies, is essential.

What are the goals of the project?

This project aims to determine the prevalence of CDV in Cerrado agroecosystems in Central Brazil by testing wild canid species — crab-eating fox (Cerdocyon thous), maned wolf (Chrysocyon brachyurus), hoary fox (Lycalopex vetulus) — as well domestic dogs (Canis lupus familiaris). We will use retrospective samples collected from a twelve-year longitudinal study in partnership with the Cerrado Mammals Conservation Program (PCMC) and prospective samples from new field collections in areas of Cerrado agroecosystems in the states of Goiás and São Paulo.

These data will be analyzed and overlaid with spatial and temporal information to estimate the potential transmission flows between species in space and time, especially the likelihood of transmission from domestic dogs to wild canids. The results will support the development of strategies for controlling virus spread, if the need for such measures is detected.