WILDLIFE CONSERVATION SOCIETY ▪ 10
throughout this area, and will likely get a photo of this animal. But without DNA material for analysis, we may be looking at a photo of the culprit without recognizing him. For now, our hope is that no news is good news from Melnichnoye.
Infectious Disease—Canine distemper virus
(CDV) has emerged as a cause of death for wild Amur tigers. Although cases of CDV were suspected as long ago as 2001, only in 2010 were we finally able to confirm the presence of this disease in wild Amur tigers. We now know that the virus can be lethal to individual tigers, but it is more difficult to predict the impact that CDV could represent at a population level. Since tigers occur at very low densities in Russia (less than one tiger per 100 km2), and interactions are presumably rare, the possibility of transmitting the virus from one tiger to another is small. However, tigers share their habitat with a range of other Martin Gilbert, WCS staff and currently a Ph.D. stureleases a badger after sampling for canine distemmammalian carnivores that are susceptible to CDV dent, per virus. Photograph © WCS Russia. and are capable of transmitting infection. These include domestic dogs as well as a number of wild carnivore species including foxes, raccoon dogs, and badgers that may play a role in maintaining the virus in the ecosystem. All these carnivore species are potential prey of tigers or scavengers at tiger kills, and thus the opportunity for disease transmission is real. Our infectious disease project, initiated in 2012 by Ph.D. student Martin Gilbert, seeks to understand the risk that CDV poses for Russian tiger populations, and to propose mitigation strategies that are both proportional and achievable in the local environment. Progress in 2014—2014 marked the third year of this study, and the completion of fieldwork attempted to identify species that might be contributing to the CDV reservoir in the environment. These efforts included the capture of small-bodied wild carnivores such as badgers and raccoon dogs in the Sikhote-Alin and Lazovskii Reserves. A total of 44 animals were captured, and samples are now being analyzed for antibodies to CDV (indicating prior exposure) as well as for the virus itself. Further surveys were directed at understanding the circulation of CDV among domestic dogs and were completed together with a team of eight veterinary students from the Primorskaya State Agricultural Academy. Work consisted of household questionnaire surveys conducted in 27 settlements around the province, to collect information on dog ownership and the structure and turnover of the dog population. Samples collected from domestic dogs are also being analyzed to assess the status of CDV in village dogs, and detect viruses that can be compared genetically to those found in the tigers. Back in the lab, we revisited a number of tiger blood samples collected a decade ago and, importantly, found that two young tigers tested positive for CDV in 2006. Both survived the infection, but this revelation may explain the lack of fear these young cats shows towards humans at the time (which we regarded then as mere naivety of young tigers). This revelation