High local genetic diversity of canine parvovirus from Ecuador.

Canine parvovirus (CPV) comprises three antigenic variants (2a, 2b, and 2c) that are distributed globally with different frequencies and levels of genetic variability. CPVs from central Ecuador were herein analyzed to characterize the strains and to provide new insights into local viral diversity, evolution, and pathogenicity. Variant prevalence was analyzed by PCR and partial sequencing for 53 CPV-positive samples collected during 2011 and 2012. The full-length VP2 gene was sequenced in 24 selected strains and a maximum-likelihood phylogenetic tree was constructed using both Ecuadorian and worldwide strains. Ecuadorian CPVs have a remarkable genetic diversity that includes the circulation of all three variants and the existence of different evolutionary groups or lineages. CPV-2c was the most prevalent variant (54.7%), confirming the spread of this variant in America. Ecuadorian CPV-2c strains clustered in two lineages, which represent the first evidence of polyphyletic CPV-2c circulating in South America. CPV-2a strains constituted 41.5% of the samples and clustered in a single lineage. The two detected CPV-2b strains (3.8%) were clearly polyphyletic and appeared related to Ecuadorian CPV-2a or foreign CPV-2b strains. Besides the substitution at residue 426 that is used to identify the variants, two amino acid changes occurred in Ecuadorian strains: Val139Iso and Thr440Ser. Ser(440) occurred in a biologically relevant domain of VP2 and is here described for the first time in CPV. The associations of Ecuadorian CPV-2c and CPV-2a with clinical symptoms indicate that dull mentation, hemorrhagic gastroenteritis and hypothermia occurred more frequently in infection with CPV-2c than with CPV-2a.