Seroprevalence and Molecular Epidemiology of Aleutian Disease in Various Countries during 1972-2021: A Review and Meta-Analysis

Abstract

Aleutian disease (AD) poses a serious threat to both free-ranging and farmed mink around the world. The disease is caused by the Aleutian mink disease virus (AMDV), which also poses a health risk for other members of the family Mustelidae, including wild mink, weasels, badgers and other animal species. This article analyses the seroprevalence of AMDV infections in mink and other species around the world, and reviews recent knowledge relating to the molecular epidemiology of the AMDV. Depending on the applied diagnostic technique and the country, the prevalence of anti-AMDV antibodies or AMDV DNA was established at 21.60-100.00% in farmed American mink, 0.00-93.30% in free-ranging American mink and 0.00-25.00% in European mink. Anti-AMDV antibodies or AMDV DNA were also detected in other free-living fur-bearing animals in Europe and Canada, where their prevalence was determined at 0.00-32.00% and 0.00-70.50%, respectively. This may indicate a potential threat to various animal species. AMDV strains are not clustered into genotypes based on the geographic origin, year of isolation or pathogenicity. The isolates that were identified on mink farms around the world originated from North America because American mink were introduced to Europe and Asia for breeding purposes and to restock natural populations.

Keywords: Aleutian disease; Aleutian mink disease virus; Mustela lutreola; Neogale vison; Parvoviridae; epidemiology.

Figure 1

A phylogenetic analysis of partial AMDV NS1 sequences in sequences originating from different areas of the world. The evolutionary history of a fragment of the NS1 region (nt 1207–1690) was inferred using the maximum-likelihood method based on the HKY model (identified as the best-fitting model) in MEGA6. The discrete gamma distribution was used to model the differences in the evolutionary rate across sites (+G = 0.4098 was modelled). The evolutionary history of selected sites was invariable in the rate variation model ((+I), 32.514% of sites). The outcome of the bootstrap analysis is shown next to the nodes, and the branch lengths are proportional to the genetic distances indicated by the scale bar. Large groups of sequences originating from the same location and clustered in the same clade were collapsed into a triangular shape at the nodes. The strains are labelled based on the original name (only for the reference sequences, indicated in italics), sampling site (NL: Newfoundland; NS: Nova Scotia; ON: Ontario; WI: Wisconsin; USA: United States of America, state unknown; DK: Denmark; DE: Germany; CN: China) and year. Viral species, clades and subclades are denoted by square brackets. The colours of tree branches correspond to the origins of the samples (red: Newfoundland; purple: Nova Scotia; blue: Ontario; orange: USA; pink: Denmark; green: Germany; black: China). AMDV: Aleutian mink disease virus; RFAV: the raccoon dog and fox amdovirus; GFAV: the gray fox amdoparvovirus [48].