Application of molecular methods to the study of infectious diseases in the mink industry

貂皮贸易是加拿大最古老的行业之一，在加拿大以资源为基础的经济中占有相当大的比例。它还提供了许多就业机会，是农村地区人民就业的重要来源。为了确保毛皮贸易的成功，需要高质量和足够数量的毛皮产品。为了实现这一目标，水貂养殖业需要在相当有限的空间内饲养大量健康的动物。然而，在这些条件下，引入一种感染剂会导致快速传播和持久的最佳环境。这可能导致大量个体同时感染，对动物健康和生产力造成严重后果。随之而来的高死亡率、动物和毛皮大小的减少、产仔数的减少和繁殖活动的减少都可能导致经济损失。已知有几种微生物会给水貂养殖场带来重大问题，其中最重要的是阿留申水貂病病毒。已知的其他病毒可引起零星流行，例如分别导致神经系统和胃肠道系统严重疾病的狂犬病病毒和肠炎病毒。这项研究项目的目的之一是在养殖和野生动物中监测这些已知对加拿大水貂养殖业造成负面影响的地方性病毒病原体，并监测由不太流行的病原体引起的潜在危险零星流行的出现。通过研究这些病毒的基因组，我们将能够确定它们是如何在农场和野生水库内部和之间出现、进化和传播的。在水貂养殖场经常观察到的另一种重要疾病是脚垫坏死，其病因尚不清楚。这项研究项目的另一个目的将致力于使用基于分子的病原体鉴定来确定这种疾病的原因，这将是疾病预防的第一步。更好地了解这些饲养和野生动物的病原体将有助于努力限制这些动物中的传染病，并将在动物健康、生产和随之而来的加拿大经济增长方面导致该行业的明显改善。

The mink fur trade is one of the oldest Canadian industries and it represents a considerable proportion of Canada's resource-based economy. It also provides many jobs and is an important source of employment for people in rural areas. A high quality and sufficient quantity of fur products are required to ensure success in the fur trade. To achieve this, mink farming necessitates a large number of healthy animals in a fairly restricted space. However, in these conditions, introduction of an infectious agent results in optimal circumstances for rapid spread and persistence. This can result in a large number of individuals being simultaneously infected, with serious consequences for animal health and productivity. Consequent high mortality, decrease in animal and pelt size, smaller litter size and reduced breeding activities can result in economic damage. Several microbes are known to cause significant problems for mink farms and the most important of these is the Aleutian mink disease virus. Other viruses are known to cause sporadic epidemics, such as the distemper and enteritis viruses that cause severe disease of the nervous and gastrointestinal systems, respectively. One purpose of this research project is to perform surveillance, in both farmed and wild animals, for these endemic viral pathogens that are known to negatively affect the mink farming industry in Canada, and to monitor for the emergence of potentially dangerous sporadic epidemics caused by less prevalent agents. By studying the genomes of these viruses we will be able to identify how they emerge, evolve and spread within and between farms and the wild reservoir. Another important disease frequently observed in mink farms is footpad necrosis, for which the causative agent remains unknown. Another purpose of this research project will be dedicated to identifying the cause of this disease using molecular-based pathogen identification, which will be the first step towards disease prevention. Better understanding of these farmed and wild animal pathogens will contribute to efforts to limit the infectious disease in these animals and will result in obvious improvements for this industry in terms of animal health, production and consequent economic growth in Canada.