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Equine herpesvirus 2 (EHV-2) infection in thoroughbred horses in Argentina

BACKGROUND: Equine herpesvirus 2 is a gamma-herpesvirus that infects horses worldwide. Although EHV-2 has been implicated in immunosuppression in foals, upper respiratory tract disease, conjunctivitis, general malaise and poor performance, its precise role as a pathogen remains uncertain. The purpos...

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Autores principales: Craig, María I, Barrandeguy, María E, Fernández, Fernando M
Formato: Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2005
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1308826/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16281971
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1746-6148-1-9
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author Craig, María I
Barrandeguy, María E
Fernández, Fernando M
author_facet Craig, María I
Barrandeguy, María E
Fernández, Fernando M
author_sort Craig, María I
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Equine herpesvirus 2 is a gamma-herpesvirus that infects horses worldwide. Although EHV-2 has been implicated in immunosuppression in foals, upper respiratory tract disease, conjunctivitis, general malaise and poor performance, its precise role as a pathogen remains uncertain. The purpose of the present study was to analyse the incidence of EHV-2 in an Argentinean horse population and correlate it with age and clinical status of the animals. RESULTS: A serological study on 153 thoroughbred racing horses confirmed the presence of EHV-2 in the Argentinean equine population. A virus neutralization test showed a total of 79.7 % animals were sero-positive for EHV-2. An increase in antibodies titre with age as well as infection at earlier ages were observed. EHV-2 was isolated from 2 out of 22 nasal swabs from horses showing respiratory symptoms. The virus grew slowly and showed characteristic cytopathic effect after several blind passages on RK13 cells. The identity of the isolates was confirmed by nested PCR and restriction enzyme assay (REA). CONCLUSION: This is the first report on the presence of EHV-2 in Argentina and adds new data to the virus distribution map. Though EHV-2 was isolated from foals showing respiratory symptoms, further studies are needed to unequivocally associate this virus with clinical symptoms.
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spelling pubmed-13088262005-12-08 Equine herpesvirus 2 (EHV-2) infection in thoroughbred horses in Argentina Craig, María I Barrandeguy, María E Fernández, Fernando M BMC Vet Res Research Article BACKGROUND: Equine herpesvirus 2 is a gamma-herpesvirus that infects horses worldwide. Although EHV-2 has been implicated in immunosuppression in foals, upper respiratory tract disease, conjunctivitis, general malaise and poor performance, its precise role as a pathogen remains uncertain. The purpose of the present study was to analyse the incidence of EHV-2 in an Argentinean horse population and correlate it with age and clinical status of the animals. RESULTS: A serological study on 153 thoroughbred racing horses confirmed the presence of EHV-2 in the Argentinean equine population. A virus neutralization test showed a total of 79.7 % animals were sero-positive for EHV-2. An increase in antibodies titre with age as well as infection at earlier ages were observed. EHV-2 was isolated from 2 out of 22 nasal swabs from horses showing respiratory symptoms. The virus grew slowly and showed characteristic cytopathic effect after several blind passages on RK13 cells. The identity of the isolates was confirmed by nested PCR and restriction enzyme assay (REA). CONCLUSION: This is the first report on the presence of EHV-2 in Argentina and adds new data to the virus distribution map. Though EHV-2 was isolated from foals showing respiratory symptoms, further studies are needed to unequivocally associate this virus with clinical symptoms. BioMed Central 2005-11-09 /pmc/articles/PMC1308826/ /pubmed/16281971 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1746-6148-1-9 Text en Copyright © 2005 Craig et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License ( (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0) ), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Craig, María I
Barrandeguy, María E
Fernández, Fernando M
Equine herpesvirus 2 (EHV-2) infection in thoroughbred horses in Argentina
title Equine herpesvirus 2 (EHV-2) infection in thoroughbred horses in Argentina
title_full Equine herpesvirus 2 (EHV-2) infection in thoroughbred horses in Argentina
title_fullStr Equine herpesvirus 2 (EHV-2) infection in thoroughbred horses in Argentina
title_full_unstemmed Equine herpesvirus 2 (EHV-2) infection in thoroughbred horses in Argentina
title_short Equine herpesvirus 2 (EHV-2) infection in thoroughbred horses in Argentina
title_sort equine herpesvirus 2 (ehv-2) infection in thoroughbred horses in argentina
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1308826/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16281971
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1746-6148-1-9
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