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Background: Canine morbillivirus (canine distemper virus, CDV) is a member of the Paramyxoviridae family. Canine distemper is a serious viral disease that affects many mammalian species, including members of the Mustelidae family. These animals have an elusive nature, which makes related virological studies extremely challenging. There is a significant knowledge gap about the evolution of their viruses and about the possible effects of these viruses to the population dynamics of the host animals. Spleen and lung tissue samples of 170 road-killed mustelids belonging to six species were collected between 1997 and 2022 throughout Hungary and tested for CDV with real-time RT-PCR. Results: Three species were positive for viral RNA, 2 out of 64 Steppe polecats (Mustela eversmanii), 1 out of 36 European polecats (Mustela putorius) and 2 out of 36 stone martens (Martes foina); all 18 pine martens (Martes martes), 10 least weasels (Mustela nivalis) and 6 stoats (Mustela erminea) tested negative. The complete CDV genome was sequenced in five samples using pan-genotype CDV-specific, amplicon-based Nanopore sequencing. Based on the phylogenetic analysis, all five viral sequences were grouped to the Europe/South America 1 lineage and the distribution of one sequence among trees indicated recombination of the Hemagglutinin gene. We verified the recombination with SimPlot analysis. Conclusions: This paper provides the first CDV genome sequences from Steppe polecats and additional complete genomes from European polecats and stone martens. The infected specimens of various species originated from distinct parts of the country over a long time, indicating a wide circulation of CDV among mustelids throughout Hungary. Considering the high virulence of CDV and the presence of the virus in these animals, we highlight the importance of conservation efforts for wild mustelids. In addition, we emphasize the importance of full genomic data acquisition and analysis to better understand the evolution of the virus. Since CDV is prone to recombination, specific genomic segment analyses may provide less representative evolutionary traits than using complete genome sequences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The number of wildlife-vehicle collisions (WVCs) is growing in countries with dense road networks. By temporal analysis of WVCs on Hungarian highways and railways, we aim to answer the following questions: 1) how did the number of WVCs change over the last decade on highways and railways, 2) what combination of road, weather and population related temporal factors produced these trends, 3) was there any relationship between the trends of WVCs occurring on the two transport corridors? Therefore, the influence of road (traffic, speed), weather (snow-cover, temperature, precipitation) and population related variables (harvest, estimated population size) on railway and highway WVCs was tested; in addition the study examines the WVC-statistics of several game species (roe deer, red deer, wild boar, red fox) simultaneously. The train collisions are given more emphasis than road collisions because this type of data and their analyses are mostly absent in the literature. A strong relation was found between railway and highway WVCs (R2=0.83; p=0.0001). Among weather factors only the mean annual temperature correlated positively with the number of WVCs. According to our results the population related variables alone did not explain the rising WVC-trends - apart from the wild boar-train collisions. A probable explanation for this is that the population related variables do not characterize the real population sizes adequately, and other factors such as the traffic and the speed of vehicles had a strong effect on WVCs, which obscure the exact role of population sizes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Poisoning caused by coumarin-type anticoagulant rodenticides (ARs) stands as the predominant method for controlling rodents globally. ARs, through secondary poisoning, pose a significant threat to predators due to their lethal and sublethal effects. We examined the concentration of accumulated ARs in liver samples of mostly road-killed steppe polecats (Mustela eversmanii) and European polecats (M. putorius) collected throughout Hungary between 2005 and 2021. The steppe polecat samples were found mainly from Eastern Hungary, while European polecats from Western Hungary. We measured the concentration of six residues by HPLC-FLD. Our analysis revealed the presence of one first-generation and four second-generation ARs in 53% of the steppe polecat (36) and 39% of the European polecat (26) samples. In 17 samples we detected the presence of at least two AR compounds. Although we did not find significant variance in AR accumulation between the two species, steppe polecats displayed greater prevalence and maximum concentration of ARs, whereas European polecat samples exhibited a more diverse accumulation of these compounds. Brodifacoum and bromadiolone were the most prevalent ARs; the highest concentrations were 0.57 mg/kg and 0.33 mg/kg, respectively. The accumulation of ARs was positively correlated with human population density and negatively correlated with the extent of the more natural habitats in both species. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to demonstrate anticoagulant rodenticide exposure in steppe polecats globally, and for European polecats in Central European region. Although the extent of AR accumulation in European polecat in Hungary appears comparatively lower than in many other European countries, the issue of secondary poisoning remains a serious problem as these ARs intrude into food webs. Reduced and more prudent usage of pesticides would provide several benefits for wildlife, included humans. However, we advocate a prioritization of ecosystem services through the complete prohibition of the toxicants., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare the following financial interests/personal relationships which may be considered as potential competing interests: Jozsef Lanszki reports was provided by HUN-REN Balaton Limnological Research Institute. Zsolt Pirger reports was provided by HUN-REN Balaton Limnological Research Institute. József Lanszki reports a relationship with HUN-REN Balaton Limnological Research Institute that includes: employment. Zsolt Pirger reports a relationship with HUN-REN Balaton Limnological Research Institute that includes: employment. József Lanszki and Zsolt Pirger was supported by the RRF-2.3.1-21-2022-00014 (National Multidisciplinary Laboratory for Climate Change), the RRF 2.3.1-21-2022-00008, BLRI (National Laboratory for Water Science and Water Security) and the NP2022-II3/2022; BLRI (Sustainable Development and Technologies National Programme of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences). If there are other authors, they declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper. If there are other authors, they declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)