1. Morbillivirus neutralising antibodies in Scottish grey seals Halichoerus grypus: assessing the effects of the 1988 and 2002 PDV epizootics
- Author
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Ailsa J. Hall, Mike Lonergan, Callan Duck, H. Thompson, Valerie Smith, Paddy P. Pomeroy, and John A. Hammond
- Subjects
education.field_of_study ,Ecology ,biology ,Population ,Zoology ,Outbreak ,Aquatic Science ,biology.organism_classification ,medicine.disease ,Virology ,Serology ,medicine.anatomical_structure ,Morbillivirus ,Phocine distemper virus ,Lactation ,Seasonal breeder ,medicine ,education ,Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics ,Epizootic - Abstract
Phocine distemper virus (PDV) may have killed a small number of grey seals Hali- choerus grypus in European waters in 2002, as it was thought to have done in 1988. PDV is known to affect harbour seal population and distribution patterns, but grey seal pup production trends did not correlate consistently with PDV outbreaks. Numbers of known mothers missing from study colonies do not increase in PDV years and pre-weaning pup mortality is similar to that in other years. Pup growth rates are similar in PDV and non-PDV years. Therefore, no direct evidence links PDV out- breaks to changes in grey seal reproductive parameters at the population, colony, or individual level. Investigation of exposure of grey seals to PDV used CDV virus-neutralisation tests on sera collected from breeding seals pre-1988, 1988, 2001 and 2002. No positive sera (≥titre 1:64) were detected prior to 1988. In 1988, 2001 and 2002 the prevalence was 96, 59 and 83%, respectively. In 2001, prevalence in 'old' mothers (of breeding age by 1988, ≥13 yr old) was 63% compared to 0% in 'young' mothers (born after 1989
- Published
- 2005
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