Mara Mobile Veterinary Unit

Category: Dogs | Date: Mar 31 2007 | By: admin

I just came back from Mara yesterday and received an email from Samantha of Wildlifedirect regarding people’s concern regarding Canine Distemper outbreak. I read all the comments and I am so glad that readers of my blog are willing to help. The disease is highly fatal diseases of canine species and clinical signs include: yellow tanecious nasal and ocular discharge (gooey discharge), fever, loss of appetite, pneumonia, vomiting, diarrhea, callus formation of nose and foot pad, neurological signs (incoordination, seizures) and death. The transmission is through aerosol (coughing) and contact of all body fluids, so basically the disease can be transmitted by physical contact. Since it is a viral disease, the only treatment is intensive supportive care in which is impossible in the Mara because there is no proper treatment facility.

This website describes the disease in further details.

The outbreak of Canine Distemper in the domestic dogs around the park is not only the concern for the dog’s welfare, but it is a concern of wildlife health. There has been an outbreak of Canine Distemper in domestic dogs surrounding Serengeti National Park in Tanzania in early 1994, which ended up wiping out estimated population of 1,000 lions.

A canine distemper virus epidemic in Serengeti lions (Panthera leo)

Canine distemper virus (CDV) is thought to have caused several fatal epidemics in canids within the Serengeti-Mara ecosystem of East Africa, affecting silver-backed jackals (Canis mesomelas) and bat-eared foxes (Otocyon megalotis) in 1978 (ref. 1), and African wild dogs (Lycaon pictus) in 1991 (refs 2, 3). The large, closely monitored Serengeti lion population was not affected in these epidemics. However, an epidemic caused by a morbillivirus closely related to CDV emerged abruptly in the lion population of the Serengeti National Park, Tanzania, in early 1994, resulting in fatal neurological disease characterized by grand mal seizures and myoclonus; the lions that died had encephalitis and pneumonia. Here we report the identification of CDV from these lions, and the close phylogenetic relationship between CDV isolates from lions and domestic dogs. By August 1994, 85% of the Serengeti lion population had anti-CDV antibodies, and the epidemic spread north to lions in the Maasai Mara National reserve, Kenya, and uncounted hyaenas, bat-eared foxes, and leopards were also affected.

Roelke-Parker ME, Munson L, Packer C, Kock R, Cleaveland S, Carpenter M, O’Brien SJ, Pospischil A, Hofmann-Lehmann R, Lutz H, et al.
Serengeti Wildlife Research Institute, Tanzania National Parks, Arusha, Tanzania.

This site shows the video of the Serengeti lion affected by Canine Distemper. The video clip shows the neurological stage of the disease (seizure) up to its death and it is bit disturbing to watch but it gives an idea of how dogs die from the disease as well.

There is another article written by the veterinarian who has done a ring vaccination of domestic dogs surrounding Serengeti to control the disease outbreak in lions.

Currently, the outbreak is happening approximately 35km away from the escarpment (boundary of wildlife protective area), but it is slowly spreading towards the reserve. Maasai owners have opted out to letting their dogs die out, until the outbreak ceases because they cannot afford to pay for the vaccine. If the disease spread to dog population bordering the reserve, it is most likely that lions and cheetahs in the park, as well as other canids such as jackal will be exposed to Canine Distemper. I will discuss the control for the disease and ring vaccination in detail in my next post.