Phylogeography of equine infectious anemia virus

Abstract

<jats:title>ABSTRACT</jats:title><jats:p>Equine Infectious Anemia virus (EIAV) is the causative agent of one of the most impacting infectious diseases affecting equids. EIAV is genetically diverse with several lineages circulating globally. To elucidate EIAV global spread patterns, we studied its spatiotemporal dynamics applying Bayesian phylodynamic analyses, using a worldwide compiled dataset composed of unique sequences of the <jats:italic>gag</jats:italic> gene. In addition, we performed a scoping review of 1.470 publications on EIAV to characterize the spatiotemporal trends in EAIV research. Phylogeographic reconstruction suggested Hungary as the most likely country of origin for current EIAV circulation (root state posterior probability = 0.21), and one of the most important centers of diversification for the disease. Historical EIAV spread was predominantly characterized by long-distance spread across continents. As a result, we found that the American and Asian circulating EIAV (i.e., Mongolia) are more related to European lineages than to other Asian countries, being Europe the continent with the highest EIAV phylogenetic diversity. Our bibliometric analysis showed a continuous increment in the number of publications per year, where the United States and China appeared as the countries with highest EIAV-related scientific production. This study provides a historical geographic mapping of the EIAV linages’ spread patterns. In addition, we identified important asymmetry between the current research effort and the availability of genetic data which restricted our abilities to quantify for example the time frame of virus dispersal.</jats:p>

High Genomic Variability in Equine Infectious Anemia Virus Obtained from Naturally Infected Horses in Pantanal, Brazil: An Endemic Region Case

“…High similarities were found among EIAV isolates from Bahia and Pantanal (present study) with European and North American strains [44]. A phylogeography to investigate the spatiotemporal dynamics of EIAV revealed Hungary as the origin of EIAV and described a migration route from Europe to the USA, then diversified and spread throughout Brazil [45]. We can observe a diversification or different origin of Brazilian strains by comparing Bahia and Pantanal gag sequences: Bahia's sequences are closer to the USA sequence, as described in the origin article [44], and BRA1/BRA2 are clustered with Italy/Ireland sequences (Supplementary Figure S8).…”

Evaluation of Equine Infectious Anemia Virus by the Indirect Enzyme-linked Immunosorbent Assay EIA-LAB as Screening Tools in Mexico

“…Contrasting with the official stablished immunodiffusion test, ELISA is an immunoenzymatic technique that allows obtaining results in short periods of time, being more effective to issue criteria and authorization for the transfer of animals, adding efficiency to equine production and activities. Furthermore, recent studies have shown that the scientific production dedicated to the investigation of this virus in Mexico is deficient, despite being one of the main producing countries of equines [18]. The implementation of the diagnosis using ELISA systems in Mexico could be an alternative to expand EIA screening studies, as well as carry out epidemiologic and prevalence analyzes in higher risk areas because it is an economical technique with high capacity for processing a large number of samples in a single round test.…”

“…Equine are valuable for agriculture, sport, and meat production [16,17] and for all these activities is important count with a certainly diagnostic system that establish that animals are free of EIAV. Information of the virus in Mexico is limited [18]. The commercially available cELISA (IDEXX) designed to detect antibodies to p26 that has been approved for EIA diagnosis in several countries.…”