Major strains of canine parvovirus present in dog population of Pakistan

Active prevalence of canine parvovirus (cpv) was studied in the dog population of pakistan. a total of 40 fecal samples were taken aseptically from dogs clinically suspected for parvovirus infection. the dogs were showing enteritis,bloody and smelly diarrhea. each of the samples was processed for nonagglutinating (ha) activity and polymerase chain reaction (pcr) based detection of capsid protein using specific primers against cpv2 and cpv2b. only 30 samples showed ha titer ranging from 1:16 to 1:512. added to this,only 29 and 27 ha positive samples affirmed cpv2 and cpv 2b amplification,respectively whereas one ha positive sample (1:32) was found negative through pcr. the results suggest that ha is a rapid screening test for diagnosis of cpv infection. the pcr technique is more reliable and rules out the possibility of other hemagglutinating pathogens causing hemorrhagic enteritis in dogs. further,it confirms that both cpv2 and cpv2b are pathogenic strains prevailing in pakistan.