Prevalence of latent, neuropathogenic equine herpesvirus‐1 in the Thoroughbred broodmare population of central Kentucky

Abstract

The presence of a relatively large biological reservoir of latent, neuropathogenic EHV-1 has the potential for posing emerging equine health and economic threats to the future prosperity of the USA horse industry.

Presencia de anticuerpos a los Herpes Virus Equino 1 y 4 en la Orinoquia Colombiana

“…En la central equina de Kentucky en USA, se detecto genoma viral de EHV-1 en nódulos linfáticos submandibulares en 54% de los animales evaluados, lo que indica infecciones latentes. A su vez 18% se encontraron infectados por una cepa neuropatogéni-ca (Allen et al, 2008). La presencia de animales infectados latentemente hace que estos virus se perpetúen en los criaderos equinos.…”

“…La presencia de animales infectados latentemente hace que estos virus se perpetúen en los criaderos equinos. En otros países la prevalencia de animales infectados latentemente varía entre 54% a 88% dependiendo de la población y el método de detección del virus (Allen et al, 2008;Lun et al, 2009).…”

New Real-Time PCR Assay Using Allelic Discrimination for Detection and Differentiation of Equine Herpesvirus-1 Strains with A 2254 and G 2254 Polymorphisms

“…In the case of both rPCR assays, the overall sensitivity scores for the 168 sequenced clinical samples were significantly reduced by the inclusion of 109 buffy coat samples. These buffy coats were shown to contain EHV-1 DNA via an ultrasensitive sequence capture nested PCR assay (2). However, 94 of these 109 samples were positive for EHV-1 DNA in the E 1 assay, whereas only 56 gave positive reactions in E 2.…”

“…When a disease outbreak occurs, confirmation of a provisional clinical diagnosis with a rapid, sensitive, and specific laboratory diagnostic test(s) is vital to ensure that appropriate biosecurity and quarantine measures are implemented without unnecessary delay. Several reports have documented the use of PCR-based assays, both standard and real-time, for the detection of EHV-1 in clinical specimens (2,8,9,13,18,21,32). However, the allelic-discrimination rPCR assay described by Allen (1) has a distinct advantage because it can simultaneously detect and genotype EHV-1 strains.…”

“…EHV-1 isolates with the A 2254 genotype have been linked principally to nonneuropathogenic infections, while viruses possessing the G 2254 genotype are frequently but not invariably associated with neurologic disease (24,36). The discovery of this single-nucleotide polymorphism in ORF30 led to the development of a real-time PCR (rPCR) assay using allelic discrimination for the detection and differentiation of potentially neuropathogenic and nonneuropathogenic EHV-1 strains (1,2).…”