Canine distemper virus in seals

During the past four months 12,000 harbours seals (Phoca vitulina ) have died in the seas of north-west Europe from a highly contagious disease, of which the clinical symptoms are similar to distemper in dogs. The authors now report the isolation of the virus using in vitro procedures, either directly or after a passage in dogs, it partial characterization and identification as CDV, and sero-epizootiological data that suggest that CDV probably does not commonly infect pinniped species.