Canine Distemper Virus; Molecular and Virological Characterization

Canine Distemper (CD) is a contagious, incurable, often fatal, multi-systemic viral disease that affects the respiratory, gastrointestinal, and central nervous systems. CD , caused by CD virus, is worldwide and has a wide host range such as canidae family (dog, fox ...etc). In this book; molecular and virological characterization of CDV Asian isolates were carried out, which introduced new biological and molecular aspects to these viruses. Such as; the ability of some isolates to propagate in Hamster cell lines, the role of fusion (F)gene or the presence of unidentified receptors other than well-known one can be used for the virus cell-interaction, the molecular properties of adapted viruses as well as the wild one and its role in virus virulence, the impact of F gene in lineages classification as hemagglutinin (H)gene.