Surveillance of the equine infectious anemia virus in Eastern and Central Saudi Arabia during 2014-2016

Abstract

Background: Equine infectious anemia virus (EIAV) is one of the most important threats to the equine industry globally. This is due to the poor performance of the affected horses, which requires euthanization of the infected animals upon the infection confirmation. Infected animals remain carriers throughout their life. EIAV infection has been reported in many parts of the world, including North America, Europe, Asia, and Africa. However, the EIAV status is never assessed in horses in the Gulf area, especially in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). Aim: This study aimed to perform molecular and serological surveillance among some horse populations in Eastern and Central Saudi Arabia. Materials and Methods: Sera and whole blood were collected from 361 horses and 19 donkeys from the eastern and central regions of Saudi Arabia during January 2014-December 2016. Sera were tested by the commercial EIAV enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay kits. Moreover, the collected blood samples were tested by the commercial real-time polymerase chain reaction kits. Results: Our serological surveillance revealed the absence of any antibodies against EIAV in the tested animals. Similar results were reported for the tested horses' plasma. This study confirms the absence of EIAV in horses and donkeys from Eastern and Central Saudi Arabia during the tenure of the current study. However, careful monitoring of the EIAV is highly recommended to avoid the emergence of such a virus in the horse population in Saudi Arabia. Conclusion: To the best of our knowledge, this is the first EIAV surveillance conducted not only in Saudi Arabia but also in the Gulf area. This study confirms the absence of EIAV in the tested equine population in the eastern and central regions of Saudi Arabia during 2014-2016.

Serological cross-sectional survey of equine infectious anemia in Saudi Arabia

“…Based on the results of the samples, it is clear that Saudi Arabia's equine population (horses and donkeys) was seronegative for EIA from 2017-2019. These results are consistent with a previous study conducted in the Eastern and Central parts of Saudi Arabia from 2014-2016 (Alnaeem and Hemida 2019) and with studies conducted in other countries, as well (Ataseven andArslan 2005, Ghadrdan-Mashhadi et al 2010).…”

“…An isolated serological survey was completed in the Sultanate of Oman in 2011, which confirmed the absence of EIAV in certain horse populations throughout the country using both ELISA and AGID tests (Body et al 2011). In addition, with only a single study completed in the Eastern and Central parts of Saudi Arabia, nothing is known about the status of EIAV in horses and donkeys across the country (Alnaeem and Hemida 2019). This cross-sectional study aims to provide information on the status of EIAV infections in Saudi Arabia.…”

Phylogeography of Equine Infectious Anemia Virus

“…On the other hand, the colonization of Asia seemed to occur exclusively from the arrival of European lineages, which explains the previously reported high similarities between certain strains from both continents in comparison with other lineages from Asia or the Americas (Herholz et al, 2013;Sharav et al, 2017). Finally, while the genetic data used here comes from hotspots areas of EIAV, there are still important gaps of information exemplified in the absence of genetic information in areas such as Africa, where despite it has evidenced the presence of three endemic EIAV serotypes (Herholz et al, 2013;Alnaeem and Hemida, 2019), there is a remarkable lack of genetic information, which could be highly related to an underreporting or lack of laboratory capacities which should be advocated (Barzoni et al, 2018).…”

Equine Infectious Anaemia: The Active Surveillance of an Entire Equid Population Reduces the Occurrence of the Infection

“…No exhaustive studies describing spatial pattern, incidence, prevalence, and temporal trends are available. Most of the published papers investigating EIA epidemiology originated from a clinical index case, from epidemiological investigations following passive surveillance, and from active surveillance studies with a sampling design not representative of the national equid population [2,[18][19][20][21][22][23][24]. Only a few studies were conducted with a proper design and a representative sampling aimed at estimating the occurrence of the infection in a region, a country, an equine sector, or the whole equid population [12,[25][26][27][28][29].…”