Case report : Canine distemper virus infection in a wild Korean raccoon dog

Abstract: A female wild raccoon dog was referred with a history of generalized seizure. Mild leukocytosis was noted onlaboratory tests. Gross lesions included nasal hemorrhage, hemothorax, and hemorrhage in the urinary bladder withhematuria. Microscopically, interstitial and purulent bacterial pneumonia was observed in the lungs. In the cerebellum,characteristic eosinophilic intracytoplasmic and intranuclear inclusion bodies were found in Purkinje cells, and severedemyelination was observed in the cerebellar white matter. Canine distemper virus (CDV) infection was suspected andconfirmed after detection of CDV nucleoprotein RNA in the cerebrum and the lungs by nested reverse transcriptionpolymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and reverse transcription loop-mediated isothermal amplification (RT-LAMP). Based onthe histopathological and molecular diagnostic findings, it was concluded that the raccoon dog was infected with CDV.