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Topic:Antibodies
Antibodies in horses are specialized proteins produced by the immune system in response to foreign substances, known as antigens. These substances can include pathogens such as bacteria, viruses, and parasites. Antibodies function by recognizing and binding to specific antigens, thereby neutralizing them or marking them for destruction by other immune cells. In equine health, antibodies are integral to both natural immune responses and those induced by vaccinations. The study of antibodies in horses encompasses their production, diversity, and role in disease resistance and management. This page gathers peer-reviewed research studies and scholarly articles that explore the generation, function, and implications of antibodies in equine immunology and disease control.
Incidence of Burkholderia mallei infection among indigenous equines in India. Burkholderia mallei is the causative agent of glanders which is a highly contagious and fatal disease of equines. Considering the nature and severity of the disease in equines, and potential of transmission to human beings, glanders is recognised as a 'notifiable' disease in many countries. An increasing number of glanders outbreaks throughout the Asian continents, including India, have been noticed recently. In view of the recent re-emergence of the disease, the present study was undertaken to estimate the prevalence of glanders among indigenous equines from different parts of India. Serum sa...
Analysis of the Association of Climate, Weather and Herd Immunity with the Spread of Equine Encephalosis Virus in Horses in Israel. It is claimed that the distribution of Culicoides-borne viruses is highly influenced by climate. Equine encephalosis virus (EEV) is a Culicoides-borne orbivirus which affects horses and was recently found to be endemic in Israel. To test whether climate is a crucial factor in the geographical distribution of EEV, we collected blood samples from horses in Israel during the years 2002, 2007 and 2010 and tested them for the abundance of antibodies to EEV. Samples were also collected in 2011 from horses that were seronegative to the virus in 2010, to determine the rate of infection with EEV. It wa...
Duration of tetanus immunoglobulin G titres following basic immunisation of horses. Recommendations for prophylactic vaccination against tetanus in horses vary greatly between countries and have scarce scientific support in the peer-reviewed literature. In human medicine, recommended booster vaccination intervals are also very variable, but are considerably longer than for horses. More information is needed about the duration of immunity induced by modern vaccines. Objective: To investigate if the duration of antibody titres previously determined to be protective against tetanus differ from what is indicated by recommended vaccination intervals for horses. Methods: Prospectiv...
Comprehensive Serology Based on a Peptide ELISA to Assess the Prevalence of Closely Related Equine Herpesviruses in Zoo and Wild Animals. Equine herpesvirus type 1 (EHV-1) causes respiratory disorders and abortion in equids while EHV-1 regularly causes equine herpesvirus myeloencephalopathy (EHM), a stroke-like syndrome following endothelial cell infection in horses. Both EHV-1 and EHV-9 infections of non-definitive hosts often result in neuronal infection and high case fatality rates. Hence, EHV-1 and EHV-9 are somewhat unusual herpesviruses and lack strict host specificity, and the true extent of their host ranges have remained unclear. In order to determine the seroprevalence of EHV-1 and EHV-9, a sensitive and specific pepti...
A High-Performance Multiplex Immunoassay for Serodiagnosis of Flavivirus-Associated Neurological Diseases in Horses. West Nile virus (WNV), Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV), and tick-borne encephalitis virus (TBEV) are flaviviruses responsible for severe neuroinvasive infections in humans and horses. The confirmation of flavivirus infections is mostly based on rapid serological tests such as enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISAs). These tests suffer from poor specificity, mainly due to antigenic cross-reactivity among flavivirus members. Robust diagnosis therefore needs to be validated through virus neutralisation tests (VNTs) which are time-consuming and require BSL3 facilities. The flavivirus envelop...
Antibody and cellular immune responses of naïve mares to repeated vaccination with an inactivated equine herpesvirus vaccine. Equine herpesvirus type 1 (EHV-1) continues to cause severe outbreaks of abortions or myeloencephalopathy in horses despite widely used vaccination. The aim of this work was to determine the effects of frequent vaccination with an inactivated EHV vaccine on immune development in horses. Fifteen EHV-1 naïve mares were vaccinated a total of 5 times over a period of 8 months with intervals of 20, 60, 90 and 60 days between vaccine administrations. Total antibody and antibody isotype responses were evaluated with a new sensitive EHV-1 Multiplex assay to glycoprotein C (gC) and gD for up to 14 mon...
Comparison of specificities of serum antibody responses of horses to clinical infections caused by Streptococcus equi or zooepidemicus. Streptococcus zooepidemicus (Sz) and its clonal derivative Streptococcus equi (Se) share greater than 96% DNA identity and elicit immune responses to many shared proteins. Identification of proteins uniquely targeted by the immune response to each infection would have diagnostic value. Objective: The aim of the study was to compare serum antibody responses of horses infected by Se or Sz. Methods: Antibody levels were measured to panels of recombinant proteins of Sz and Se in sera of horses and ponies before and after experimental and naturally occurring invasive infections by these organisms. ...
Identification of a Novel Conserved B Cell Epitope in the N Protein of Equine Arteritis Virus (Bucyrus Strain). The nucleocapsid (N) protein is the most conserved structural protein in equine arteritis virus (EAV). This study aimed to identify the minimal conserved B cell epitope on the EAV N protein. The purified N protein was used to immunize mice for preparing monoclonal antibody (mAb). The reactivity of mAb was evaluated by Western blot and immunofluorescence assay. Moreover, 11 overlapping peptides (named MBP-N1 to MBP-N11) were designed to localize the linear antigenic epitope within the N protein. The peptides were identified by indirect enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and Western blot....
The prevalence of antibodies to Toxoplasma gondii in horses in Changji Hui Autonomous Prefecture, Xinjiang, northwestern China. Toxoplasmosis is a worldwide zoonosis caused by Toxoplasma gondii, which can infect warm-blooded animals and humans. The present study was performed to investigate the seroprevalence of T. gondii in horses in Xinjiang, northwestern China. A total of 637 blood samples were collected from seven regions in Changji Hui Autonomous Prefecture, Xinjiang in 2011 and assayed for T. gondiiantibodies using the modified agglutination test (MAT). Risk factors (age, gender, and region) related to seroprevalence were determined by a multivariate logistic regression analysis. A total of 200 horses (31.4%, 95%...
Molecular evidence of Theileria equi infection in Hyalomma anatolicum ticks infested on sero-positive Indian horses. A sizeable Indian equine population is considered to be pre-immune carrier of Theileria equi infection. In this study we confirmed the presence of T. equi specific DNA in Hyalomma anatolicum ticks which were infested on sero-positive horses. Fifty two Indigenous horses were randomly selected from endemic areas and their blood and tick samples were collected. Tick salivary glands and blood samples were processed for separation of DNA and serum, respectively. Serum samples were analyzed by EMA-2ELISA and nine horses were found positive for T. equi specific antibodies. Species-specific primers we...
Evaluation of Cross-Protection of a Lineage 1 West Nile Virus Inactivated Vaccine against Natural Infections from a Virulent Lineage 2 Strain in Horses, under Field Conditions. Although experimental data regarding cross-protection of horse West Nile virus (WNV) vaccines against lineage 2 infections exist, the cross-protective efficacy of these vaccines under field conditions has not been demonstrated. This study was conducted to evaluate the capability of an inactivated lineage 1 vaccine (Equip WNV) to protect against natural infections from the Nea Santa-Greece-2010 lineage 2 strain. In total, 185 WNV-seronegative horses in Thessaloniki, Greece, were selected during 2 consecutive years (2011 and 2012); 140 were immunized, and 45 were used as controls. Horses were ex...
Seroprevalence of antibodies of Neospora spp. and Toxoplasma gondii in horses from southern Italy. The consumption of horse meat has been epidemiologically linked to clinical toxoplasmosis in humans and neosporosis that may cause clinical illness in horses. Here we determined seroprevalence of antibodies against Toxoplasma gondii Nicolle et Manceaux, 1908 and species of Neospora Dubey, Carpenter, Speer, Topper et Uggla, 1988 in horses from Italy. Blood samples were collected from 643 apparently healthy horses from 60 farms of 51 municipalities in southern Italy. The presence of antibodies against T. gondii and Neospora spp. were detected by indirect fluorescence antibody test (IFAT); a titr...
Changes in Serum Strongylus Vulgaris-Specific Antibody Concentrations in Response to Anthelmintic Treatment of Experimentally Infected Foals. Strongylus vulgaris is the most pathogenic nematode parasite of horses. Its extensive migration in the mesenteric blood vessels can lead to life-threatening intestinal infarctions. Recent work has shown that this parasite is still identified among managed horse populations. A serum enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) has been developed for the detection of migrating larvae of S. vulgaris. Previous work has documented an increase in ELISA values following larvicidal treatment with ivermectin and suggested that the target parasite antigen is primarily produced by the later larval stages. T...
Brucellosis in working equines of cattle farms from Minas Gerais State, Brazil. The present survey aimed at estimating the seroprevalence of brucellosis in working equines of cattle farms from Minas Gerais State, Brazil, and investigating risk factors associated with the infection. Serum samples from 6439 animals, including 5292 horses, 1037 mules and 110 donkeys, were collected from 1936 herds, between September 2003 and March 2004, in 848 municipalities from the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil. The prevalence of antibodies against smooth Brucella spp. found in equines from Minas Gerais State was 1.37% (95% CI: 0.97-1.78), resulting in a prevalence of herds with infected a...
Comparison between available serologic tests for detecting antibodies against Anaplasma phagocytophilum and Borrelia burgdorferi in horses in Canada. To investigate the agreement between available serologic tests for the detection of antibodies against Anaplasma phagocytophilum and Borrelia burgdorferi, 50 serum samples from horses of unknown clinical status and at low risk for infection were tested. In addition to a point-of-care enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (pocELISA), the evaluated tests included 2 indirect fluorescent antibody tests (IFATs) for antibodies against A. phagocytophilum and an IFAT, an ELISA confirmed with Western blot, and the Lyme multiplex assay for antibodies against B. burgdorferi. For each pair-wise comparison bet...
Antibody and Viral Nucleic Acid Testing of Serum and Cerebrospinal Fluid for Diagnosis of Eastern Equine Encephalitis. Eastern equine encephalitis diagnostic serum antibody can appear 6 days after the onset of symptoms, and its numbers can increase 4-fold in 4 days, arguing for early and frequent serum testing. In populations where cerebrospinal fluid viral nucleic acid testing sensitivity and specificity remain undetermined, cerebrospinal antibody testing should also be performed.
Antibody responses after vaccination against equine influenza in the Republic of Korea in 2013. In this study, antibody responses after equine influenza vaccination were investigated among 1,098 horses in Korea using the hemagglutination inhibition (HI) assay. The equine influenza viruses, A/equine/South Africa/4/03 (H3N8) and A/equine/Wildeshausen/1/08 (H3N8), were used as antigens in the HI assay. The mean seropositive rates were 91.7% (geometric mean antibody levels (GMT), 56.8) and 93.6% (GMT, 105.2) for A/equine/South Africa/4/03 and A/equine/Wildeshausen/1/08, respectively. Yearlings and two-year-olds in training exhibited lower positive rates (68.1% (GMT, 14) and 61.7% (GMT, 11.9)...
Genetic and serological surveillance for non-primate hepacivirus in horses in Japan. Non-primate hepacivirus (NPHV) is a recently discovered homolog of the hepatitis C virus in horses. The frequency and distribution of NPHV infections among horses in Japan is unknown. In this study, serum samples from 453 horses across Japan were screened for NPHV RNA using real-time RT-PCR and anti-nonstructural 3 protein (NS3) antibodies using the Gaussia luciferase immunoprecipitation system assay. In order to monitor the course of NPHV infection in horses, we examined 31 stored samples (9 adult horses and 22 young horses) obtained one year ago and compared the results to the recent data. S...
A field survey for the seroprevalence of Theileria equi and Babesia caballi in donkeys from Nuu Division, Kenya. Equine piroplasmosis is one of the most significant tick-borne disease of equids. The prevalence of this disease in donkeys of semi-arid Kenya remains largely unexplored. The primary objective of this study was to demonstrate the extent to which donkeys in Nuu division, Kenya have been exposed to the haemoprotozoans Babesia caballi and Theileria equi, the causative agents of equine piroplasmosis. The study also assessed the effect of age and sex on seroprevalence. A stratified sampling approach was used and three hundred and fourteen donkeys were sampled across nine sub-locations in Nuu divisi...
Detection of equine herpesvirus-4 and physiological stress patterns in young Thoroughbreds consigned to a South African auction sale. The prevalence of equine herpesvirus types-1 and -4 (EHV-1 and -4) in South African Thoroughbreds at auction sales is currently undefined. Commingling of young Thoroughbreds from various populations together with physiological stress related to their transport and confinement at a sales complex, may be associated with shedding and transmission of EHV-1 and -4. This prospective cohort study sampled 90 young Thoroughbreds consigned from eight farms, originating from three provinces representative of the South African Thoroughbred breeding demographic to a sales complex. Nasal swabs for quantitat...
Seroepidemiology of Paracoccidioides brasiliensis infection in horses from Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. Paracoccidioides brasiliensis is the etiological agent of the major systemic mycosis in Brazil, called paracoccidioidomycosis. Although the Rio Grande do Sul is considered an endemic area of the disease, there are few studies on the ecology of P. brasiliensis in the state. Therefore, this study aimed to evaluate the infection of P. brasiliensis in horses from the mesoregion of Southwest Riograndense, using these animals as sentinels. Serological techniques, such as double immunodiffusion in agar gel (AGID) and indirect ELISA, were performed to detect the anti-gp43 P. brasiliensis antibody in h...
IRES-Containing VEEV Vaccine Protects Cynomolgus Macaques from IE Venezuelan Equine Encephalitis Virus Aerosol Challenge. Venezuelan equine encephalitis virus (VEEV) is an arbovirus endemic to the Americas that is responsible for severe, sometimes fatal, disease in humans and horses. We previously described an IRES-based VEE vaccine candidate based up the IE serotype that offers complete protection against a lethal subtype IE VEEV challenge in mice. Here we demonstrate the IRES-based vaccine's ability to protect against febrile disease in cynomolgus macaques. Vaccination was well tolerated and elicited robust neutralizing antibody titers noticed as early as day 14. Moreover, complete protection from disease chara...
Developing a preventive immunization approach against insect bite hypersensitivity using recombinant allergens: A pilot study. Insect bite hypersensitivity (IBH) is an allergic dermatitis of horses caused by bites of midges (Culicoides spp.). IgE-mediated reactions are often involved in the pathogenesis of this disease. IBH does not occur in Iceland due to the absence of Culicoides, but it occurs with a high frequency in Icelandic horses exported to mainland Europe, where Culicoides are present. We hypothesize that immunization with the Culicoides allergens before export could reduce the incidence of IBH in exported Icelandic horses. The aim of the present study was therefore to compare intradermal and intralymphatic ...
Local and systemic effect of transfection-reagent formulated DNA vectors on equine melanoma. Equine melanoma has a high incidence in grey horses. Xenogenic DNA vaccination may represent a promising therapeutic approach against equine melanoma as it successfully induced an immunological response in other species suffering from melanoma and in healthy horses. In a clinical study, twenty-seven, grey, melanoma-bearing, horses were assigned to three groups (n = 9) and vaccinated on days 1, 22, and 78 with DNA vectors encoding for equine (eq) IL-12 and IL-18 alone or in combination with either human glycoprotein (hgp) 100 or human tyrosinase (htyr). Horses were vaccinated intramuscularly, a...
A new trivalent SnSAG surface antigen chimera for efficient detection of antibodies against Sarcocystis neurona and diagnosis of equine protozoal myeloencephalitis. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISAs) based on the SnSAG surface antigens of Sarcocystis neurona provide reliable detection of infection by the parasite. Moreover, accurate serodiagnosis of equine protozoal myeloencephalitis (EPM) is achieved with the SnSAG ELISAs by measuring antibodies in serum and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) to reveal active infection in the central nervous system. Two independent ELISAs based on recombinant (r)SnSAG2 or a chimeric fusion of SnSAG3 and SnSAG4 (rSnSAG4/3) are currently used together for EPM serodiagnosis to overcome varied antibody responses in different...
scAAVIL-1ra dosing trial in a large animal model and validation of long-term expression with repeat administration for osteoarthritis therapy. A gene therapeutic approach to treat osteoarthritis (OA) appears to be on the horizon for millions of people who suffer from this disease. Previously we described optimization of a scAAVIL-1ra gene therapeutic vector and initially tested this in an equine model verifying long-term intrasynovial IL-1ra protein at therapeutic levels. Using this vector, we carried out a dosing trial in six horses to verify protein levels and establish a dose that would express relevant levels of therapeutic protein for extended periods of time (8 months). A novel arthroscopic procedure used to detect green fluore...
Seroprevalence and Potential Risk Factors Associated with Neospora spp. Infection among Asymptomatic Horses in Jordan. This study aimed to determine the seroprevalence and to identify risk factors associated with Neospora spp. infection in horses in Jordan. Management related data were collected from each farm and individual horses. Sera from 227 horses from 5 of 6 climatic regions in Jordan were analyzed for the presence of antibodies to Neospora spp. by ELISA kit. The study was performed during spring of 2010. The association between seropositivity and risk factors was analyzed. A total of 7 (3%) of 227 sera had antibodies for Neospora spp. There was a significant regional difference (P=0.018) between the 5 ...
Antibody escape kinetics of equine infectious anemia virus infection of horses. Lentivirus escape from neutralizing antibodies (NAbs) is not well understood. In this work, we quantified antibody escape of a lentivirus, using antibody escape data from horses infected with equine infectious anemia virus. We calculated antibody blocking rates of wild-type virus, fitness costs of mutant virus, and growth rates of both viruses. These quantitative kinetic estimates of antibody escape are important for understanding lentiviral control by antibody neutralization and in developing NAb-eliciting vaccine strategies.
Equine allogeneic bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stromal cells elicit antibody responses in vivo. This study tested the hypothesis that Major Histocompatibility Complex (MHC) incompatible equine mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) would induce cytotoxic antibodies to donor MHC antigens in recipient horses after intradermal injection. No studies to date have explored recipient antibody responses to allogeneic donor MSC transplantation in the horse. This information is critical because the horse is a valuable species for assessing the safety and efficacy of MSC treatment prior to human clinical application. Methods: Six MHC heterozygote horses were identified as non-ELA-A2 haplotype by microsat...
Serological evidence of equine influenza infections among persons with horse exposure, Iowa. Equine influenza virus (EIV) is considered enzootic in North America and experimental studies have documented human EIV infections. Methods: This cross-sectional study examined 94 horse-exposed and 34 non-exposed controls for serological evidence of EIV infection. Sera were evaluated for antibodies against three EIV and two human H3N2 viruses using microneutralization (MN), neuraminidase inhibition (NI), enzyme-linked lectin (ELLA), and hemagglutination inhibition (HI) serological assays. Risk factor analyses were conducted using logistic regression and proportional odds modeling. Results: The...
