UNIVERSIDAD DE CHILE FACULTAD DE CIENCIAS VETERINARIAS Y PECUARIAS FACTORES DE RIESGO ASOCIADOS A TASAS DE INFECCIÓN DE DISTEMPER CANINO EN PERRO DOMÉSTICO (Canis familiaris) Y CARNÍVOROS SILVESTRES EN LA RESERVA DE LA BIÓSFERA DE JANOS, CHIHUAHUA, MÉXICO

Human population growth and expansion have caused a habitat overlap between humans, their domestic animals and wildlife population. Physical interactions between these species has enabled the spread of infectious diseases and has had implications for public health and conservation. In addition, the presence of domestic dogs (Canis familiaris) in protected areas may impact wild carnivore’s conservation due to, mainly, disease transmission caused by spillover infection.  A good example of this is canine distemper virus (CDV), that has been reported in every family of terrestrial and some marine carnivores. The disease poses a threat for these predators and dogs are the principal reservoir of the infectious agent, keeping the virus among their population and spreading it towards other hosts.  The objective of the present study is to determine the risk factors related to the presence of CDV in dogs and wild carnivores of the Janos Biosphere Reserve. The virus diagnosis was made by serological testing and it was found that the virus is circulating in both dogs and wild carnivore population. The results show that there is a physical interaction between domestic and wild species, however, they suggest that there is no risk of interspecies infection between positive individuals