Two giant pandas (Ailuropoda melanoleuca) died of unknown causes in a Chinese zoo. The clinical disease profile suggested that the pandas may have suffered a viral infection. Therefore, a series of detection including virus isolation, electron microscopy, cytobiological assay, serum neutralization and RT-PCR were used to identify the virus. It was determined that the isolated virus was a canine coronavirus (CCV), on the basis of coronavirus, neutralization by canine anti-CCV serum, and 84.3% to 100% amino acid sequence similarity with CCV. The results suggest that the affected pandas had been infected with CCV.
Amino Acid Sequence ; Animal Diseases/*virology ; Animals ; Animals, Zoo/*virology ; Coronaviridae Infections/*veterinary/virology ; Coronavirus, Canine/genetics/*isolation & purification ; Fatal Outcome ; Female ; Male ; Molecular Sequence Data ; Sequence Alignment ; Sequence Homology, Amino Acid ; Ursidae/*virology ; Viral Proteins/chemistry