Infectious diseases in horses encompass a range of illnesses caused by bacteria, viruses, fungi, or parasites. These diseases can affect various systems within the equine body, leading to symptoms that range from mild discomfort to severe systemic illness. Common infectious diseases in horses include equine influenza, strangles, equine herpesvirus, and West Nile virus. These diseases can be transmitted through direct contact with infected animals, contaminated surfaces, or vectors such as insects. Understanding the mechanisms of transmission, pathogenesis, and immune response is essential for effective prevention and control. This page compiles peer-reviewed research studies and scholarly articles that explore the epidemiology, diagnosis, treatment, and management of infectious diseases in horses.
Moulay S, Zientara S, Sailleau C, Cruciere C.In order to develop a non-radioactive dot-blot hybridization assay, for the detection of African-horse sickness virus (AHSV), genome segment 7 from 9 serotypes was amplified by RT-PCR. The resulting PCR products were denatured, immobilized on nylon membranes and then hybridized to a non-radioactive digoxigenin-labelled probe. This probe (265 bp in length) was generated by nested-PCR using genome segment 7 of AHSV, serotype 4 as a template. The dot-blot was visualized by chemiluminescence. Positives were obtained from the PCR products amplified from all 9 AHSV serotypes, but not from any other ...
Austin SM, Foreman JH, Hungerford LL.Risk factors for development of pleuropneumonia were determined by reviewing medical records of 45 horses with pleuropneumonia and 180 control horses examined between Jan 1, 1980 and Jan 1, 1990. Factors considered included age, breed, sex, occupation, transport farther than 500 miles within the previous week, racing within the previous 48 hours, viral respiratory tract infection or exposure to horses with viral respiratory tract disease within the previous 2 weeks, and vaccination against influenza or rhinopneumonitis within the previous 6 months. Results indicated that Thoroughbreds were at ...
Guo Y, Wang M, Zheng GS, Li WK, Kawaoka Y, Webster RG.In May 1993, a severe epidemic of respiratory disease began in horses in Inner Mongolia and spread throughout horses in China. The disease affected mules and donkeys as well as horses but did not spread to other species, including humans. The severity of the disease raised the question of whether the outbreak might have been caused by the new avian-like influenza viruses detected in horses in China in 1989 or by current variants ofA/equine/Miami/1/63 (H3N8) (equine-2) or by a reassortant between these viruses. Antigenic and sequence analysis established that all gene segments of the influenza ...
Chirnside ED, de Vries AA, Mumford JA, Rottier PJ.Complementary DNAs encoding ORFs 2 to 7 equine arteritis virus (EAV) have been cloned into the expression vector pGEX to produce glutathione-S-transferase fusion proteins. Recombinant proteins were affinity purified and screened in ELISA with equine sera to identify immunoreactive polypeptides. The large envelope glycoprotein (GL) was identified as the most reactive to EAV-positive equine sera and an immuno-dominant epitope was mapped between amino acids 55 and 98 by subcloning and expression. A fusion protein covering this region and a GL-specific synthetic peptide (residues 75 through 97) in...
Ochoa M, Bárcena J, de la Luna S, Melero JA, Douglas AR, Nieto A, Ortín J, Skehel JJ, Portela A.Characterization of the epitopes recognized by 21 monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) specific for the influenza A virus PA (13 MAbs) and PB2 (8 MAbs) polypeptides (Bárcena et al. (1994) J. Virol. 68, 6900-6909) raised against denatured polypeptides produced in E. coli is described. MAbs were characterized by: (1) competitive binding ELISAs; (2) mapping of the protein regions that specify their binding sites; and (3) analyses of their ability to recognize the corresponding viral protein in a number of viral isolates. Five and three non-overlapping antigenic areas were defined by the anti-PA and anti...
Kanaly ST, Hines SA, Palmer GH.Rhodococcus equi, a facultative intracellular bacterium, causes chronic, often fatal granulomatous pneumonia in young horses and in humans with AIDS. The inability of host alveolar macrophages to kill intracellular R. equi results in the development of granulomas and progressive loss of pulmonary parenchyma. Clearance of the organism from the lung requires functional CD4+ T cells. The purpose of this study was to identify the cytokine effector mechanisms that mediate clearance of R. equi from the lung. Mice were treated with monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) to either gamma interferon (IFN-gamma) o...
Gliatto JM, Alroy J.A horse with malignant lymphoma (histiolymphocytic) and cutaneous amyloidosis is described. The lymphoma involved the dura mater of the spinal cord and some of the peripheral lymph nodes. Multifocal amyloid deposits were present in the skin and subcutis of the ventral abdomen but not within the lymphoma cell infiltrates or in the viscera.
Steagall WK, Robek MD, Perry ST, Fuller FJ, Payne SL.The retrovirus equine infectious anemia virus (EIAV) encodes a dUTPase situated between reverse transcriptase and integrase. We have described the inability of EIAV with a 270-bp dUTPase deletion, delta DU EIAV, to replicate to wild-type (WT) levels in equine macrophages (D. S. Threadgill, W. K. Steagall, M. T. Flaherty, F. J. Fuller, S. T. Perry, K. E. Rushlow, S. F. J. LeGrice, and S. L. Payne, J. Virol. 67, 2592-2600, 1993). Here we describe the construction of a second dUTPase-deficient virus (DUD71E) containing a single amino acid substitution in dUTPase. delta DU and DUD71E replicate to ...
Madewell BR, Tang YJ, Jang S, Madigan JE, Hirsh DC, Gumerlock PH, Silva J.Intestinal colonization with toxigenic strains of Clostridium difficile was documented in 9 of 10 horses with acute onset diarrhea in a veterinary medical teaching hospital, whereas a similar isolate was detected in only 1 of 23 other horses without diarrhea in the hospital. One horse with diarrhea was infected simultaneously with both C. difficile and Salmonella krefeld. Clostridium difficile was detected by fecal culture on selective medium, confirmed with a latex particle agglutination test, and identified as toxigenic by polymerase chain reaction amplification of toxin A and toxin B gene s...
Chirnside ED, Francis PM, de Vries AA, Sinclair R, Mumford JA.A recombinant glutathione-S-transferase fusion protein expressing amino acids 55-98 of equine arteritis virus (EAV) GL (rGL 55-98) was tested in an ELISA for its ability to detect serum antibodies to EAV. Host antibodies induced following EAV infection bound the recombinant antigen by ELISA. The ELISA specificity and sensitivity were determined with a panel of equine sera including postinfection and postvaccination samples. A good correlation existed between EAV neutralizing antibody titers and ELISA absorbance values (r = 0.827). The sensitivity and specificity of the ELISA were 99.6 and 90.1...
Oikawa M, Takagi S, Anzai R, Yoshikawa H, Yoshikawa T.Eight young thoroughbred horses, taken 1858 km by road (travelling time, 41 h), were examined to assess the pathological nature of respiratory disease associated with transport. Three of the horses showed clinical abnormalities including pyrexia, coughing, leucocytosis and neutrophilia after the first 20 h of transportation. Endoscopical examination of the trachea revealed exacerbation of airway inflammation as a result of transport in two of the three affected horses. A consistent finding in the affected horses was focal serous neutrophilic pneumonia affecting the cranio-ventral portion of th...
Ayroud M, Leighton FA, Tessaro SV.Four of five reindeer (Rangifer tarandus tarandus) obtained from a Besnoitia sp.- infected herd at the Assiniboine Park Zoo in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, in October 1989, had evidence of mild dermatitis over the articular surfaces of carpal and tarsal joints. Cysts of Besnoitia sp., either surrounded by inflammatory reactions or without evident host response, were present within the dermis, submucosa of the nasal turbinates, periosteum, tendons, testes and hooves. The light microscopic and histochemical features of Besnoitia sp. from reindeer were indistinguishable from those of other Besnoit...
Monreal L, Villatoro AJ, Hooghuis H, Ros I, Timoney PJ.During 1992, a widespread outbreak of Equine viral arteritis (EVA) occurred at a riding establishment near Barcelona, Spain. A total of 31 out of 186 horses on the premises displayed clinical signs, most frequently, fever, depression, mild ventral and limb oedema and a vesicular-erosive stomatitis, with hypersalivation, petechiations and small ulcerations. Affected horses developed illness of varying severity with only a few exhibiting a severe form of the disease and no mortality was recorded. Haematological and blood biochemical examination the most severely affected horses revealed a thromb...
Selvey LA, Wells RM, McCormack JG, Ansford AJ, Murray K, Rogers RJ, Lavercombe PS, Selleck P, Sheridan JW.To describe the clinical and epidemiological features of an outbreak of a viral infection affecting humans and horses. Methods: Stables in Hendra, a suburb of Brisbane. Methods: Affected horses and humans, and at-risk human contacts. Results: A pregnant mare died two days after arrival from a paddock elsewhere in Brisbane. Eight to 11 days later, illness (depression, anorexia, fever, dyspnoea, ataxia, tachycardia, tachypnoea and nasal discharge) was reported among 17 other horses from the same or an adjoining stable. Fourteen horses died or were put down. Five and six days after the index mare...
Telford EA, Watson MS, Aird HC, Perry J, Davison AJ.The complete DNA sequence of equine herpesvirus 2 (EHV-2) strain 86/67 was determined. The genome is 184,427 bp in size and has a base composition of 57.5% G + C. Unusually for a herpesvirus, about a third of the sequence distributed in several large blocks appears not to encode proteins. The 79 open reading frames that were identified as probably polypeptide-coding are predicted to encode 77 distinct proteins. Amino acid sequence comparisons confirmed that EHV-2 is a gamma-herpesvirus that is genetically collinear with herpesvirus saimiri (HVS; a gamma 2-herpesvirus) and Epstein-Barr virus (E...
Rico-Hesse R, Weaver SC, de Siger J, Medina G, Salas RA.One of the most important questions in arbovirology concerns the origin of epidemic Venezuelan equine encephalitis (VEE) viruses; these viruses caused periodic, extensive epidemics/epizootics in the Americas from 1938-1973 (reaching the United States in 1971) but had recently been presumed extinct. We have documented the 1992 emergence of a new epidemic/epizootic VEE virus in Venezuela. Phylogenetic analysis of strains isolated during two outbreaks indicated that the new epidemic/epizootic virus(es) evolved recently from an enzootic VEE virus in northern South America. These results suggest co...
Schlocker N, Gerber-Bretscher R, von Fellenberg R.In a search of viral agents in pulmonary macrophages of horses with chronic pulmonary disease, equine herpesvirus 2 was found to be unique. In 8 of 9 horses with chronic pulmonary disease, antigens of equine herpesvirus 2 were detected by indirect immunofluorescence staining of scattered foamy macrophages immediately after harvesting by bronchoalveolar lavage and fractionation on metrizamide gradients. In a healthy horse, antigens were not found. After 1 week of cultivation of bronchoalveolar lavage cells from a second group of 9 horses with chronic pulmonary disease, viral antigens were detec...
Sato K, Tokuhisa S, Inaba Y.The growth of group A human, bovine, equine and porcine rotaviruses were enhanced by pretreatment of virus with pancreatin, trypsin, protease, alkaline phosphatase or pepsin and incorporation of these enzymes in maintenance medium. In contrast, alpha-amylase or lipase inhibited the growth of equine and porcine rotaviruses. The other enzymes, adenosine deaminase, lactase, lysozyme, ribonuclease or triose-phosphate isomerase gave little or no change in the growth of all four rotaviruses.
van Duijkeren E, van Klingeren B, Vulto AG, Sloet van Oldruitenborgh-Oosterbaan MM, Breukink HJ, van Miert AS.The in vitro activity of 17 antimicrobial drugs against strains of Salmonella typhimurium (n = 52), Salmonella thompson (n = 2), Salmonella heidelberg (n = 3), Salmonella hadar (n = 2), Salmonella enteritidis (n = 1), Salmonella infantis (n = 1) and Salmonella derby (n = 1) was tested using the agar dilution method. The strains were isolated from horses admitted to the Large Animal Clinics of Utrecht University. The majority of strains were susceptible to gentamicin, amikacin, kanamycin, enrofloxacin, ciprofloxacin, flumequine, colistine, furazolidone and ceftiofur. However, all strains of Sal...
Odenkirchen S, Huskamp B.Casuistics of 200 patients with acute diarrhea (72 horses with salmonellosis, 55 horses with typhlocolitis, 73 horses with unspecific diarrhea) have been analyzed. It was shown, that horses with salmonellosis have been fallen ill with a primary disease for a longer period of time before the beginning of diarrhea than those with typhlocolitis and that in cases of salmonellosis antibiotics very often were used during the preliminary treatment. Frequently a primary illness of the colon was seen with typhlocolitis. Besides the frequent use of butylscopolamin during the pretreatment was noticed. Th...
van Duijkeren E, Flemming C, Sloet van Oldruitenborgh-Oosterbaan M, Kalsbeek HC, van der Giessen JW.Three rectal faecal samples were taken at 24-hour intervals from 136 horses in order to investigate whether multiple faecal cultures yield a greater number of Salmonella-positive horses compared to single faecal cultures. Of these 136 horses, 89 were suspected of salmonellosis on clinical grounds and 47 belonged to a control group. From the 'Salmonella suspected' group, 22 horses (25%) were Salmonella positive on one or more occasions. Only twelve of these 22 positive horses (55%) were positive at first sampling. Of the control group, only three horses (6%) were positive for Salmonella. Thirty...
Dwyer RM.Disinfection of equine premises provides a challenge to farm managers, in view of the variety of surfaces which may be contaminated and the wide variety of horse pathogens. Of the commonly occurring infectious diseases for which disinfection and disease control are especially important, rotavirus diarrhoea, salmonellosis and strangles are the most difficult to control. Phenolic disinfectants have been scientifically demonstrated to be effective in the presence of organic matter and are also virucidal. When used after thorough cleaning and rinsing of stall surfaces, phenolics have proved effect...
Morley PS, Hanson LK, Bogdan JR, Townsend HG, Appleton JA, Haines DM.Antibodies specific for equine influenza viruses are usually quantified using single radial hemolysis (SRH), hemagglutination inhibition (HI) or virus neutralization (VN). Neutralizing antibodies are thought to provide optimum protection to challenged animals. The purpose of this study was to determine the extent to which SRH and HI assays detect antibodies which neutralize equine influenza viruses. Acute and convalescent sera from 41 horses were analyzed using VN, SRH, and HI assays. These horses were present in a population of Thoroughbred racehorses during an epidemic of upper respiratory t...
Powell DG, Watkins KL, Li PH, Shortridge KF.Equine-2 influenza virus A (H3N8) infection occurred among vaccinated thoroughbred horses in Hong Kong during November and December 1992. The outbreak was unique in that it occurred among a large population stabled under intensive conditions. It resulted in the postponement of seven race meetings over a period of 32 days. The outbreak originated after the importation of horses 25 to 32 days before any clinical signs were reported. Vaccination did not prevent 75 per cent of the population from becoming infected, and half the infected horses developed clinical signs. Vaccination did, however, co...
Kang HW, Lee EY, Lee KK, Ko MK, Park JY, Kim YH, Lee K, Choi EJ, Kim J, So B, Park CK, Jeoung HY.Equine herpesvirus-1 (EHV-1) is an important pathogen in horses. It affects horses worldwide and causes substantial economic losses. In this study, for the first time, we characterized EHV-1 isolates from South Korea at the molecular level. We then aimed to determine the genetic divergences of these isolates by comparing them to sequences in databases. In total, 338 horse samples were collected, and 12 EHV-1 were isolated. We performed ORF30, ORF33, ORF68, and ORF34 genetic analysis and carried out multi-locus sequence typing (MLST) of 12 isolated EHV-1. All isolated viruses were confirmed as ...
Gharbi M, Drissi G, Darghouth MA.A preliminary study was carried out to examine the population dynamics of ticks on 24 pure Arabian horses. The horses were monitored monthly over one year in the Ghardimaou region of north-west Tunisia. A total of 120 adult ticks were collected and identified, leading to the estimation of different parasitological indicators. The ticks belonged to a single genus (Hyalomma) and three species: H. scupense (59%), H. marginatum (28%) and H. excavatum (13%) (p < 0.001). The mean infestation prevalence was 29.5%; the highest prevalence was observed for H. scupense (41.7%) (p 0.05), but the propo...
Prakoso D, Dark MJ, Barbet AF, Salemi M, Barr KL, Liu JJ, Wenzlow N, Waltzek TB, Long MT.West Nile virus (WNV), a small, positive sense, single stranded RNA virus continues to encroach into new locales with emergence of new viral variants. Neurological disease in the equine can be moderate to severe in the face of low to undetectable virus loads. Physical methods of virus enrichment may increase sensitivity of virus detection and enhance analysis of viral diversity, especially for deep sequencing studies. However, the use of these techniques is limited mainly to non-neural tissues. We investigated the hypothesis that elimination of equine brain RNA enhances viral detection without...
Beard WL, Wilkie DA.Ocular and periorbital sarcoids and squamous cell carcinoma are common in equine practice. Extensive involvement of periorbital tissues often necessitates removal of the globe if the function of the eyelids can not be maintained with tumor removal alone. This report describes a modification of the standard enucleation or exenteration technique for cases in which there is insufficient skin to achieve primary closure following complete surgical excision. The caudal portion of the dorsal orbital rim is protuberant; partial excision with an osteotome facilitates skin closure by decreasing the size...
Tehrani M, Ownagh A.Q fever is a worldwide zoonosis caused by an obligate intra-cellular pathogen called affecting a broad range of animal hosts including horses. Most of the isolates found carry plasmids which genetic studies of strains suggest a critical role in survival. The correlation between an isolated plasmid type and the chronic or acute nature of the disease has always been controversial. This study was conducted to investigate the prevalence of and plasmids in horses and assess the potential role of these species as reservoirs of infection and transmission. Nested-polymerase chain reaction (PCR) a...
Szeredi L, Aupperle H, Steiger K.Formalin-fixed, paraffin wax-embedded fetal membranes from 76 cases of equine abortion were examined immunohistochemically for equine herpesvirus (EHV)-1 antigen. Of the 76 cases, 11 had been proved EHV-1-positive by diagnostic methods applied to the aborted fetuses (viral isolation in tissue culture, or immunohistochemical examination, or both). Of the 11 fetal membranes from the virus-positive animals, five gave positive results on immunohistochemical examination, and three on in-situ hybridization; the positive signals were detected in trophoblastic cells and occasionally in monocytes and e...
Bertram TA, Jensen AE.Morphology and function of equine neutrophils were evaluated after combination with contagious equine metritis organism (CEMO) or 1 of 2 CEMO lipopolysaccharides (LPS). The 2 LPS (LPS-a; LPS-p) isolated from the CEMO contained 14- and 16-carbon fatty acids, ketodeoxyoctanate, hexose, and heptose, but were morphologically distinct. Neutrophils exposed to LPS had fewer granules, whereas those exposed to CEMO had more granules than did the controls (phosphate-buffered saline solution). Neutrophil iodination was significantly increased with 10 and 25 micrograms of LPS-a, but not significantly alte...
Araujo JM, Araújo JV, Braga FR, Carvalho RO.Three isolates of predator fungi Duddingtonia flagrans (AC001), Monacrosporium thaumasium (NF34), and Arthrobotrys robusta (I-31) were assessed in in vitro test regarding the capacity of prey infective larvae (L(3)) Strongyloides westeri. Compared to control, without fungus, there was a significant decrease (P 0.01) in vitro test. Linear regression coefficients of treated and control groups were -0.21 for control, -0.32 for D. flagrans, -0.34 for M. thaumasium, and -0.22 for A. robusta. In the following, isolates AC001 and NF34 were assessed in vivo regarding the capacity of supporting the pa...
Abreu RA, Weiss RR, Thomaz-Soccol V, Locatelli-Dittrich R, Laskoski LM, Bertol MA, Koch MO, Alban SM, Green KT.Sera from 112 mares from 5 horse-breeding farms was examined for the presence of antibodies to Neospora caninum and Toxoplasma gondii by an indirect fluorescent antibody test (IFAT), as well as from dogs and cattle present on these properties for the presence of antibodies to N. caninum. Among the 112 mares, 35 had a history of reproductive problems in the last breeding season and 77 had no reproductive problems. The rates of seroprevalence of N. caninum in mares with and without a history of reproductive problems were 25.71% and 6.49% and from T. gondii 2.85% and 1.29%, respectively. In dogs ...
Souza EAR, Araujo AC, Pires LCSR, Freschi CR, Azevedo SS, Machado RZ, Horta MC.Equine piroplasmosis, an economically important disease in horses, has so far not been reported in Pernambuco state, Brazil. This study aimed to evaluate the seroprevalence of anti-Babesia caballi and anti-Theileria equi antibodies based on the detection of these agents in equine blood and in ticks on horses in the municipality of Petrolina, Pernambuco, northeastern Brazil. Blood samples were drawn from 393 horses and sera were examined by ELISA. The presence of tick infestations was evaluated, and 101 ticks were subjected to DNA amplification for the detection of Babesia spp. by polymerase ch...
Lorenzo-Figueras M, Pusterla N, Byrne BA, Samitz EM.To evaluate the effectiveness of a commercial conventional blood culture system (BCS), a commercial resin-containing BCS, and a commercial lysis-centrifugation-based BCS for the recovery of Escherichia coli from equine blood samples inoculated with that organism. Methods: Samples of blood obtained from a clinically normal horse that were inoculated with E coli. Methods: Blood samples were aseptically collected and inoculated with an E coli specimen (50 CFUs/mL) that had been previously isolated from a foal with sepsis. Subsequently, samples were spiked with gentamicin at a concentration of 30 ...
Cummings JF, de Lahunta A, Timoney JF.Four cases of neuritis of the cauda equina (NCE) were studied by light and electron microscopy. Examination of sacral intradural rootlets revealed inflammatory cell infiltrates and an array of myelinated fiber changes which included myelin stripping by invading mononuclear cells and macrophages, as well as splitting and vesiculation of myelin lamellae without obvious participation by leukocytes. More distally in the extradural roots, there was marked granulomatous inflammation, and demyelinative changes were overshadowed by widespread evidence of irreversible axon damage. In all cases, unusual...
Furr M.Diagnosis of neuro-inflammatory conditions in the horse can be challenging. Current methods include evaluation of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) for inflammation and determination of specific antibody status. The antibody index (AI) and Goldman-Witmer coefficient (C-value) can be used to aid in the interpretation. Objective: The null hypothesis to be tested was that the Al and C-values do not change in horses with neuroinflammation. Methods: Twelve horses of various ages (3-17 years) and breeds (Thoroughbred, Thoroughbred cross, draft, and Arabian) were included in the study. Methods: The study was...
Infectious causes of myositis are reported relatively uncommonly in horses. Among them, bacterial causes include subsp. , , spp. spp, and . Infection can be spread to muscles via haematogenous or extension from skin lesions. Parasitic myositis has also been documented. In this report, a 12 year-old Italian Quarter Horse mare presented with diffuse subcutaneous nodules and masses ranging from 2 × 3 to 5 × 20 cm in size, and adherent to subcutis and muscles that were first macroscopically and cytologically diagnosed as pyogranulomas. Subsequently, histological, molecular, bacteriological, a...
Mawhinney I, Errington J, Stamper N, Torrens N, Engelsma MY, Roest HIJ.Sets of genital swabs are routinely taken from horses to screen for the presence of Taylorella equigenitalis, the cause of contagious equine metritis. Typically, two to four different sites are swabbed at a time and tested by culture or PCR. Objective: This study explored the feasibility of pooling these swabs for a single PCR test per animal instead of testing each swab individually. Methods: In vitro. Methods: PCR signal strengths (Ct values) from 149 historical PCR positive genital swabs, together with historical data on the number of swabs in a set expected to be positive, were used to ass...
Vest DJ, Cohen ND, Berezowski CJ, Morehead JP, Blodgett GP, Blanchard TL.To determine whether administration of killed West Nile virus vaccine was associated with pregnancy loss among broodmares. Methods: Retrospective cohort study. Methods: 595 mares. Methods: Records of pregnant mares with known vaccination history from 4 farms were reviewed. Information obtained from 595 mares included mare's identification; farm; age; breed; reproductive status; last breeding date; date last known pregnant; vaccination date; age of conceptus at vaccination; vaccination during the early embryonic, early fetal, and late fetal periods; and whether an early embryonic death (EED), e...
Salmonella enterica subsp. enterica serovar Abortusequi (S. Abortusequi) is a serotype restricted to equines, which produces abortion outbreaks. Nowadays the disease is being reported in different countries including Argentina thus generating an important impact in the equine industry. Molecular characterization of the 95 kb virulence plasmid and the spvC gene of S. Abortusequi demonstrated their importance in the pathogenicity of the serotype. In the last decades, high clonality of S. Abortusequi was identified in Japan, Mongolia and Croatia. Objective: The aim of this work was to characteriz...
Kweon CH, Kwon BJ, Ko YJ, Kenichi S.VP7, the sero-group common antigen, of African horsesickness virus (AHSV-4) was expressed in insect cells by recombinant baculovirus. To develop a specific diagnostic method, monoclonal antibody (Mab) against VP7 was prepared and investigated as diagnostic reagent with the baculovirus expressed VP7. However, the Mab against VP7 of AHSV cross-reacted with Chuzan virus by the indirect immunofluorescence assay (IFA), confirming the presence of conserved domain of VP7 among Orbiviruses. This study describes two types of ELISA; Mab linked indirect (I-ELISA) and competitive-ELISA (C-ELISA) using bac...
Singh BK, Ahuja S, Gulati BR.A single-dilution, sensitive and specific monoclonal antibody-based blocking enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (B-ELISA) was developed as an alternative to the cumbersome virus neutralization test (VNT) for detection of equine herpesvirus-1 (EHV-1) antibodies. Neutralizing monoclonal antibodies (1H6 and 9C6) raised against EHV-1 (Hisar-90-7 strain) and sera from 70 horses (30 known negative and 40 known positive for EHV-1 antibodies by VNT) were used for standardization of the B-ELISA. Using a single serum dilution of 1:250 in B-ELISA, 100% specificity was obtained with both monoclonal antibod...
Tanaka Y, Adilbish A, Koyama K, Bayasgalan MO, Horiuchi N, Uranbileg N, Watanabe K, Purevdorj B, Gurdorj S, Banzragch B, Badgar B, Suganuma K....Dourine is a deadly protozoan disease in equids caused by infection with Trypanosoma equiperdum. Neurological signs in the later stage of infection may be caused by peripheral polyneuritis and related axonal degeneration. This neuritis involves T lymphocytes, B lymphocytes, and macrophages, and is observed in cases without obvious neurological signs. However, the pathogenesis of neuritis remains unclear. We identified M2 macrophages and CD8 T cells as the predominant phenotypes in neuritis of dourine-affected horses with or without neurological signs. In contrast, the populations of M1 macroph...
Debey MC, Bailie WE.Horse farms in Kansas were surveyed for the incidence of Rhodococcus equi. Fecal specimens and soil or cobweb samples were collected from each farm and cultured on selective media. One control farm (with no history of R. equi infection), one farm which had an outbreak 3 and 4 years previously and 2 farms which had R. equi-infected foals that season were surveyed. In addition, fecal samples from 21 horses hospitalized in the Kansas State University Veterinary Hospital were cultured. There was no significant difference in the incidence of R. equi in fecal samples from the 2 farms with recent dis...
Kubota T, Inaba Y, Uwatoko K, Akashi H, Fukunaga Y.Equine arteritis virus (EAV) grown on RK13 cell cultures was tested for hemagglutination (HA) with erythrocytes from a variety of species at 4 degrees C, room temperature and 37 degrees C. HA was observed at all temperatures with erythrocytes from mouse and chicken but not with those of cattle, horse, rabbit, guinea pig, mongolian gerbil, goose or chick embryo. Chickens showed an individual variation in agglutinability of their erythrocytes, requiring selection of birds to obtain erythrocytes for HA. The HA activity was enhanced by treatment of virus materials with Tween 80 followed by treatme...
Müller I, Khanakah G, Kundi M, Stanek G.Grazing animals are continuously exposed to tick bites. Consequently, one may expect that horses will become infected with the various pathogens carried by ticks including Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato. Whether horses may develop clinical disease due to this pathogen is controversially discussed. We were interested to learn about the infection of horses with Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato within one season by studying the dynamics of the humoral immune response in paired blood samples. The majority of horses examined were Lipizzaner from the stud farm in Piber/Steiermark, and from the Spani...
Smith BP.The science of control of infectious diseases in hospitals was born in 1847 when Semmelweis, a physician, ordered his medical students to scrub their hands in chlorinated lime water between patients and demonstrated that this simple procedure resulted ina dramatic decline in patient morbidity and mortality. In the late nineteenth century came huge breakthroughs in the understanding that microorganisms cause many disorders, and methods to eliminate and control these microorganisms were attempted. By 1910, sterile instruments, gowns, masks, and gloves had become standard for surgical procedures ...
Navas C, Manso T, Martins F, Minto L, Moreira R, Minozzo J, Antunes B, Vale A, McDaniel JR, Ippolito GC, Felicori LF.The antibody repertoire (Rep-seq) sequencing revolutionized the diversity of antigen B cell receptor studies, allowing deep and quantitative analysis to decipher the role of adaptive immunity in health and disease. Particularly, horse (Equus caballus) polyclonal antibodies have been produced and used since the century XIX to treat and prophylaxis diphtheria, tuberculosis, tetanus, pneumonia, and, more recently, COVID-19. However, our knowledge about the horse B cell receptors repertories is minimal. We present a deep horse antibody heavy chain repertoire (IGH) characterization of non-infected ...
Wang Y, Zhang LP, Li J, Li DD, Zhang Q, Li C.The aim of this study was to determine the seroprevalence of Babesia caballi and Theileria equi in horses imported into Shanghai port. Between 2018 and 2019, 344 horse sera samples were collected and tested for B. caballi and T. equi, using commercially available kits. Only one B. caballi seropositive sample was detected. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of a B. caballi seropositive in imported horses at Shanghai port, which reflects the importance of monitoring piroplasmosis seroprevalence in imported horses.
Karamalla ST, Gubran AI, Adam IA, Abdalla TM, Sinada RO, Haroun EM, Aradaib IE.African horse sickness virus (AHSV) is an infectious non contagious insect-transmitted double-stranded (ds) RNA orbivirus of the family Reoviridae. AHSV causes an often fatal hemorrhagic infection with high mortality among selected breeds of Arabian horses. This study was conducted to avail some information with regard to the prevalence and associated risk factors of AHSV among ecotype breeds of horses in central Sudan. Methods: Sera were collected from 320 horses, which were selected randomly from four localities and employed in the study. A competitive enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (cELI...
Dieckhöfer R.Borna Disease Virus (BDV) is a unique RNA virus, whose organs of manifestation are the brain and blood of animals as well as humans. The infection disrupts certain cell functions, but does not damage the cell structure. The infection with BDV can exist without associated clinical symptoms. Furthermore the majority of natural BDV-infections occur unnoticed without causing symptoms particularly those in connection with only a slight BDV-infection. BDV-infected horses can be detected by an extremely practicable ELISA based on blood samples and developed by the Berlin Working Group under guidance ...
Yager JA, Duder CK, Prescott JF, Zink MC.Polymorphonuclear neutrophil leukocytes (PMNL) from 8 healthy foals (2-14 weeks of age) and 2 foals with bacterial pneumonia were separated from whole blood using a 2 step Percoll gradient. Purified PMNL were tested for bactericidal function against Rhodococcus equi and Staphylococcus aureus in the presence of normal horse serum. The percentage uptake after a 15-min pre-incubation of PMNL and bacteria was also calculated. Ultrastructural examination of the interaction of R. equi and normal foal PMNL was performed after 15 min incubation. Results indicated that foal PMNL effectively phagocytose...
Hinton TM, Crabb BS.Equine rhinitis B virus (ERBV) has recently been classified as an Erbovirus, a new genus in the Picornaviridae family. ERBV is distantly related to members of the Cardiovirus and Aphthovirus genera which utilize a type II internal ribosome entry sequence (IRES) to initiate translation. We show that ERBV also possesses the core stem-loop structures (H-L) of a type II IRES. The function of the ERBV IRES was characterized using bicistronic plasmids that were analysed both by transfection into BHK-21 cells and by in vitro transcription and translation in rabbit reticulocyte lysates. In both system...
