Investigation of an EHV-1 Outbreak in the United States Caused by a New H(752) Genotype

Here we report on an EHV-1 outbreak investigation caused by a novel genotype H(752) (histidine in amino acid position 752 of the ORF 30 gene). The outbreak involved 31 performance horses. Horses were monitored over a period of 35 days for clinical signs, therapeutic outcome and qPCR results of EHV-1...

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Autores principales: Pusterla, Nicola, Barnum, Samantha, Miller, Julia, Varnell, Sarah, Dallap-Schaer, Barbara, Aceto, Helen, Simeone, Aliza
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8231618/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34199153
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/pathogens10060747
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author Pusterla, Nicola
Barnum, Samantha
Miller, Julia
Varnell, Sarah
Dallap-Schaer, Barbara
Aceto, Helen
Simeone, Aliza
author_facet Pusterla, Nicola
Barnum, Samantha
Miller, Julia
Varnell, Sarah
Dallap-Schaer, Barbara
Aceto, Helen
Simeone, Aliza
author_sort Pusterla, Nicola
collection PubMed
description Here we report on an EHV-1 outbreak investigation caused by a novel genotype H(752) (histidine in amino acid position 752 of the ORF 30 gene). The outbreak involved 31 performance horses. Horses were monitored over a period of 35 days for clinical signs, therapeutic outcome and qPCR results of EHV-1 in blood and nasal secretions. The morbidity of the EHV-1 outbreak was 84% with 26 clinically infected horses displaying fever and less frequently anorexia and distal limb edema. Four horses showed mild transient neurological deficits. Clinically diseased horses experienced high viral load of EHV-1 in blood and/or nasal secretions via qPCR, while subclinically infected horses had detectable EHV-1 mainly in nasal secretions. The majority of infected horses showed a rise in antibody titers to EHV-1 during the outbreak. All 31 horses were treated with valacyclovir, while clinically infected horses further received flunixin meglumine and sodium heparin. This investigation highlights various relevant aspects of an EHV-1 outbreak caused by a new H(752) genotype: (i) importance of early detection of EHV-1 infection; (ii) diagnostic challenge to assess H(752) genotype; (iii) apparent benefit of valacyclovir use in the early stage of the outbreak; and (iv) weekly testing of blood and nasal secretions by qPCR in order to monitor individual infection status and lift quarantine.
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spelling pubmed-82316182021-06-26 Investigation of an EHV-1 Outbreak in the United States Caused by a New H(752) Genotype Pusterla, Nicola Barnum, Samantha Miller, Julia Varnell, Sarah Dallap-Schaer, Barbara Aceto, Helen Simeone, Aliza Pathogens Case Report Here we report on an EHV-1 outbreak investigation caused by a novel genotype H(752) (histidine in amino acid position 752 of the ORF 30 gene). The outbreak involved 31 performance horses. Horses were monitored over a period of 35 days for clinical signs, therapeutic outcome and qPCR results of EHV-1 in blood and nasal secretions. The morbidity of the EHV-1 outbreak was 84% with 26 clinically infected horses displaying fever and less frequently anorexia and distal limb edema. Four horses showed mild transient neurological deficits. Clinically diseased horses experienced high viral load of EHV-1 in blood and/or nasal secretions via qPCR, while subclinically infected horses had detectable EHV-1 mainly in nasal secretions. The majority of infected horses showed a rise in antibody titers to EHV-1 during the outbreak. All 31 horses were treated with valacyclovir, while clinically infected horses further received flunixin meglumine and sodium heparin. This investigation highlights various relevant aspects of an EHV-1 outbreak caused by a new H(752) genotype: (i) importance of early detection of EHV-1 infection; (ii) diagnostic challenge to assess H(752) genotype; (iii) apparent benefit of valacyclovir use in the early stage of the outbreak; and (iv) weekly testing of blood and nasal secretions by qPCR in order to monitor individual infection status and lift quarantine. MDPI 2021-06-13 /pmc/articles/PMC8231618/ /pubmed/34199153 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/pathogens10060747 Text en © 2021 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Case Report
Pusterla, Nicola
Barnum, Samantha
Miller, Julia
Varnell, Sarah
Dallap-Schaer, Barbara
Aceto, Helen
Simeone, Aliza
Investigation of an EHV-1 Outbreak in the United States Caused by a New H(752) Genotype
title Investigation of an EHV-1 Outbreak in the United States Caused by a New H(752) Genotype
title_full Investigation of an EHV-1 Outbreak in the United States Caused by a New H(752) Genotype
title_fullStr Investigation of an EHV-1 Outbreak in the United States Caused by a New H(752) Genotype
title_full_unstemmed Investigation of an EHV-1 Outbreak in the United States Caused by a New H(752) Genotype
title_short Investigation of an EHV-1 Outbreak in the United States Caused by a New H(752) Genotype
title_sort investigation of an ehv-1 outbreak in the united states caused by a new h(752) genotype
topic Case Report
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8231618/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34199153
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/pathogens10060747
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