The virus has been found as a natural infection in the Mustelidae family within mink, ferrets, otters, polecats, stone and pine martens and within other carnivores such as skunks, genets, foxes and raccoons.

The disease was so named because it was first found in mink with the Aleutian coat color gene, a gun-metal grey pelt.

[9] A lethal infection in mink, the Aleutian disease virus lies dormant in ferrets until stress or injury allows it to surface.

While the parvovirus itself causes little or no harm to the ferret host, the large number of antibodies produced in response to the presence of the virus results in a systemic vasculitis, resulting in eventual renal failure, bone marrow suppression and death.

[10] The symptoms are chronic, progressive weight loss, lethargy, splenomegaly (enlarged spleen), anemia, rear leg weakness, seizures and black tarry stool.

[7] Likewise, in the mink kits that survive, it infects the alveolar cells and ultimately causes respiratory distress, possibly leading to death.

[13] Additionally modern methods such as Real-Time PCR allow for rapid and accurate detection as well as determination of the amount of viron present.