Virology in horses encompasses the study of viruses that affect equine species, including their biology, transmission, and impact on horse health. This field investigates viral pathogens that can lead to a range of diseases, from respiratory infections to neurological disorders. Common viruses affecting horses include equine influenza virus, equine herpesvirus, and West Nile virus. Understanding these viruses involves examining their genetic makeup, modes of transmission, and interactions with the equine immune system. This page compiles peer-reviewed research studies and scholarly articles that explore the epidemiology, pathogenesis, and control measures of viral infections in horses.
Kay BH, Pollitt CC, Fanning ID, Hall RA.Eleven weanling horses were inoculated with Murray Valley encephalitis and Ross River viruses either by intravenous injection or by the bite of Culex annulirostris or Aedes vigilax mosquitoes infected orally. Five of the 11 horses circulated trace amounts of MVE virus for 1 to 5d and they infected 7/408 Cx annulirostris which subsequently fed on them. Haemagglutination-inhibiting antibody persisted at detectable levels for the 24-week observation period. With Ross River virus, only one of 11 horses inoculated developed a viraemia detectable by inoculation of suckling mice but 5 horses containe...
Onyekaba C, Bueon L, King P, Fahrmann J, Goyal SM.A comparative study was carried out to determine the susceptibility of five different cell lines to pseudorabies virus (PRV), a herpes virus of pigs. The cell systems tested were swine testicle (ST), mink lung (ML), equine dermal (ED), porcine kidney (PK15), and bovine turbinate (BT) cells. Virus titers obtained were 10(4.88), 10(4.38), 10(3.75), 10(2.63), and 10(0.25) for ML, ST, PK15, BT and ED cells, respectively indicating that ML, ST, and PK15 are optimal cell lines for the growth of PRV whereas BT and ED are not very sensitive.
Timoney PJ, McCollum WH, Murphy TW, Roberts AW, Willard JG, Carswell GD.The carrier state has been confirmed virologically in Thoroughbred and non-Thoroughbred stallions naturally infected with equine arteritis virus (EAV). Short-term or convalescent and long-term carriers occur. The frequency rate of the long-term carrier state in Thoroughbreds was high, averaging 33.9% among the three groups of stallions under study. While the convalescent carrier state only lasted a few weeks after clinical recovery, the long-term carrier state could persist for years. There was evidence, however, that not all such carriers might remain persistently infected for life. Carrier s...
Bridges CG, Edington N.Equine sera were used to immunoprecipitate radiolabelled virus-infected cell proteins; subsequent resolution with polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis identified the EHV-1 polypeptides VP 2, 10a, 11, 13, 14, 15, 16, 20, 21 and 23a. The humoral support of ADCC by these sera was examined in vitro. Cytotoxicity could be demonstrated against both subtypes irrespective of the immunising isolate. The implications of these results are discussed.
Calisher CH, Monath TP, Sabattini MS, Mitchell CJ, Lazuick JS, Tesh RB, Cropp CB.In 1983, 17 virus strains were isolated from mosquitoes collected during an outbreak of western equine encephalitis in Santa Fe Province, Argentina. Strains of western equine encephalitis, Venezuelan equine encephalitis, St. Louis encephalitis, and Antequera viruses were isolated, as were several bunyaviruses of the California and Bunyamwera serogroups and a new vesiculovirus. Complement fixation and neutralization tests were used to identify the California serogroup virus as a subtype of Melao virus, the Bunyamwera serogroup virus as a subtype of both Maguari and Playas viruses, and the vesic...
Mumford JA, Rossdale PD, Jessett DM, Gann SJ, Ousey J, Cook RF.An extensive outbreak of EHV-1 abortions occurred on a stud farm in England in 1985. Of the 67 pregnant mares present on the stud farm, 31 were challenged with EHV-1, resulting in the loss of 22 fetuses or foals. Laboratory investigations revealed that the spread of the virus closely followed movement of apparently healthy mares (during the incubation period of the infection). During the outbreak mares were challenged 1-4 months before the expected foaling date. There was no relationship between the gestational age at the time of challenge and the subsequent outcome of infection in terms of ab...
Browning GF, Studdert MJ.The epidemiology of equine herpesvirus 2 was examined by using restriction endonuclease DNA fingerprints to distinguish viruses isolated from two groups of horses. The first group consisted of three yearlings isolated from other horses but in contact with each other for 418 days, whereas the second comprised seven mares and their foals, which were sampled at monthly intervals from parturition until the foals were about 180 days old. There was a complex pattern of transmission, with 15 different viruses isolated from both groups. Four distinguishable viruses were isolated from the three yearlin...
Mitchell CJ, Monath TP, Sabattini MS, Daffner JF, Cropp CB, Calisher CH, Darsie RF, Jakob WL.Mosquitoes were collected in Santa Fe and Rio Negro provinces, Argentina, in 1982-1983 during a western equine encephalitis (WEE) epizootic. Totals of 153,084 mosquitoes from Santa Fe Province and 484 from Rio Negro Province were tested for virus in 2,351 pools. Seventeen virus strains were isolated, all from Santa Fe collections, as follows: 4 WEE, 6 Venezuelan equine encephalitis, 1 St. Louis encephalitis, 2 Antequera, 1 Maguari, 1 Melao, 1 new vesiculovirus (Calchaqui), and 1 Gamboa. The WEE virus isolates were from Aedes albifasciatus, Anopheles albitarsis, Mansonia species, and Psorophora...
Eichhorn W.Infections and clinical diseases caused by equine 2 influenza A viruses are observed worldwide. The frequency of these outbreaks supports the hypothesis that antigenic variation of the surface proteins may play an important role. For the demonstration of these variations, monoclonal antibodies (Mabs) were prepared. They are directed against the hemagglutinin or the neuraminidase of the prototype strain a/eq/Miami/1/63. In hemagglutination-inhibition assays with Mabs two reaction patterns were observed: four Mabs inhibited 14 out of 17 strains tested. Another Mab recognized the hemagglutinin of...
Clark GG, Crabbs CL, Bailey CL, Calisher CH, Craig GB.An arbovirus survey was conducted during August 1985 at White Sands Missile Range in southcentral New Mexico following a suspected arboviral disease epizootic among feral horses. A total of 20,566 mosquitoes (18,505 females and 2,061 males) and 8,900 biting gnats were collected and assayed for virus. Female mosquitoes were principally Aedes campestris (54.8%), Aedes dorsalis (30.4%) and Culex tarsalis (13.2%). Arboviruses were not isolated from biting gnats, but mosquitoes yielded a total of 37 viral isolates, including western equine encephalitis (WEE) (18), California serogroup (15), Cache V...
Dale B, Brown R, Miller J, White RT, Air GM, Cordell B.Equine influenza is caused by two serotypes of type A influenza virus, EIV-A1 and EIV-A2. The complete nucleotide sequence of the neuraminidase (NA) genes of both the A1 (N7 subtype) and A2 (N8 subtype) serotype has been determined following cloning of full-length viral NA cDNAs into pBR322. Analysis of the deduced amino acid sequences reveals that the N7 and N8 genes share expected extensive homologies with the previously sequenced N1, N2, and N9 NA subtypes. These homologies include conservation of basic NA gene and protein structure, cysteine residues, potential glycosylation sites, and res...
Rushlow K, Olsen K, Stiegler G, Payne SL, Montelaro RC, Issel CJ.The nucleotide sequence of the envelope (env) gene region of equine infectious anemia virus (EIAV), a member of the lentivirus subfamily of retroviruses, has been determined from a clone of integrated proviral DNA for which the gag and pol sequences have been reported previously. The env gene is 859 codons in length and the sequence reported here is consistent with the published biochemical properties of EIAV glycoproteins. The env gene region of EIAV shares considerable structural similarities but negligible sequence homologies with the env genes of other members of the lentivirus subfamily, ...
Schneider J, Kaaden O, Copeland TD, Oroszlan S, Hunsmann G.Two glycopolypeptides with molecular weights 160,000 and 120,000 (gp120) are regularly recognized by human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-specific antisera in lysates of cells persistently infected with HIV. In the present study, gp120 was characterized as the major envelope glycopolypeptide of HIV. Gp120 was identified as the external viral glycoprotein by radiosequencing and by its presence in purified virus. However gp120 was predominantly shed as a soluble protein into the culture fluid. Furthermore gp120 was precipitated by sera from horses infected with equine infectious anaemia virus (EIA...
Denyer MS, Crowther JR.Antigenic differences within equine-1 and equine-2 isolates of influenza were studied by haemagglutination inhibition tests, indirect ELISA and competition ELISA, using the same antisera. Better differentiation was obtained with the competition ELISA than with the other two tests. All three methods produced similar relationships within the equine-1 isolates but differed in their ability to differentiate the equine-2 isolates where the competition ELISA was superior and produced epidemiologically sensible results. In all three tests, post-infection ferret and horse sera were more useful in disc...
Yaniv A, Dahlberg J, Gazit A, Sherman L, Chiu IM, Tronick SR, Aaronson SA.Molecular clones of the integrated form of the genome of equine infectious anemia virus (EIAV), the etiologic agent of a naturally occurring, worldwide disease of horses, were obtained. The restriction map of a full-length genome was determined. Additional evidence for the close evolutionary relationship between EIAV and a prototype lentivirus (caprine arthritis encephalitis virus) was acquired by Southern blotting and immunological analyses. An interspecies radioimmunoassay was developed in which EIAV and ovine and caprine lentiviruses could be detected equally well. These studies make availa...
Beards GM, Brown DW, Green J, Flewett TH.Pleomorphic virus-like particles have been observed by electron microscopy in the faeces of children and adults with diarrhoea. Some of these particles were approximately 100 nm in diameter and had a "fringe" of closely applied peplomers approximately 10 nm long; they closely resembled Berne virus of horses and Breda virus of calves, the two representatives of a newly proposed family called the Toroviridae. In one sample a toroidal nucleoprotein-like structure was observed within the particles. For two samples a buoyant density of 1.14 g/ml was determined by centrifugation through a sucrose de...
Baumann RP, Staczek J, O'Callaghan DJ.Equine herpesvirus type one (EHV-1) defective interfering (DI) particle DNA fragments were inserted into the XbaI site of the plasmid vector pACYC184. Five DI XbaI fragments, which ranged in molecular weight from 4.5 to 6.7 MDa, were selected for detailed analysis. Each DI DNA clone was labeled with 32P-deoxynucleotides by nick translation and hybridized to genomic digests of EHV-1 standard (STD) DNA bound to nitrocellulose. All five clones were shown to hybridize to DNA sequences derived from the left terminus (0.0-0.04 map units) of the long (L) region and from the short (S) region inverted ...
Timoney PJ, McCollum WH, Roberts AW, Murphy TW.The chronic carrier state was virologically confirmed in 15 thoroughbred stallions naturally infected with equine arteritis virus based on the results of test matings and, or, isolations of the virus from semen. Carrier stallions were shown to shed equine arteritis virus in the semen for at least one to two years. Existence of a short-term or convalescent carrier state was also demonstrated in five additional stallions. The frequency of the long-term carrier state in stallions naturally infected with equine arteritis virus was 35 per cent; it varied considerably between groups of stallions on ...
Pomelova VG, Gaĭdamovich SIa, Demenev VA, Kadoshnikov IuP.A three-step concentration of Venezuelan equine encephalomyelitis (VEE) virus from tissue culture fluid was carried out in a two-phase system of polyethyleneglycol (PEG)--sodium dextran sulphate (SDS). The concentration method was based on the dependence of virus distribution coefficient upon NaCl content in the system which allowed alternating transfer of the virus from one phase of the system into the other. The infectious activity of the virus increased approximately 100-fold after the first step, 190-fold after the second, and 300-fold after the third step. The process of concentration was...
van Berlo MF, Rottier PJ, Spaan WJ, Horzinek MC.Intracellular virus-specific proteins induced by equine arteritis virus (EAV) have been compared with in vitro translation products of virion and intracellular EAV RNAs. In infected BHK-21 cells, the two major virion proteins (C and E1) and polypeptides with mol. wt. of 60,000 (p60), 42,000 (p42) and 30,000 (p30) were found. There were no indications that the viral proteins were processed from a larger precursor as shown by pulse-chase, amino acid analogue and protease inhibitor experiments. The six polyadenylated RNAs that occur in EAV-infected cells were isolated and translated in an mRNA-de...
van Berlo MF, Rottier PJ, Horzinek MC, van der Zeijst BA.Equine arteritis virus (EAV) is a nonarthropod-borne togavirus. Six virus-specific RNA species have been found in EAV-infected cells having the following molecular weights: 4.3 X 10(6) (RNA1), 1.3 X 10(6) (RNA2), 0.9 X 10(6) (RNA3), 0.7 X 10(6) (RNA4), 0.3 X 10(6) (RNA5), and 0.2 X 10(6) (RNA6). RNA1 comigrates with the viral genome (M. F. Van Berlo, M. C. Horzinek, and B. A. M. Van der Zeijst, 1982, Virology 118, 345-352). All RNAs hybridized with a radio-labeled cDNA probe representing RNA6, indicating that they contain common sequences. To study this homology in more detail, RNase T1 oligon...
Kinney RM, Johnson BJ, Brown VL, Trent DW.A cDNA clone containing all of the 26 S mRNA coding region of the RNA genome of Venezuelan equine encephalitis (VEE) virus, virulent strain Trinidad donkey (TRD), has been constructed and sequenced. The nucleotide and deduced amino acid sequences of the 26 S RNA of VEE virus conform to the general organization of the alphavirus subgenomic mRNA. Excluding the poly(A) tail, the VEE 26 S RNA is 3913 nucleotides long with a protein coding region of 3762 nucleotides. Codon usage in the translated region is nonrandom and correlates well with that reported for Sindbis (SIN), Semliki Forest (SF), and ...
O'Banion MK, Reichmann ME, Sundberg JP.Equine papillomaviruses (EqPV) from naturally occurring cases of cutaneous papillomatosis in several ponies and one horse were isolated, cloned, and characterized. Group specific papillomavirus structural antigens were detected in sections of the papillomas by the peroxidase-antiperoxidase technique, and virions were observed in the in the nuclei of cells in the stratum granulosum and corneum. Negatively stained virions purified from papilloma homogenates by isopycnic CsCl centrifugation were 55 nm in diameter and had typical papillomavirus morphology. The entire viral genomes of two separate ...
Bridges CG, Edington N.Intrinsic phagocytosis and killing of C. albicans by equine monocytes and polymorphonuclear leucocytes (PMN) was examined during Equid Herpesvirus 1 (EHV-1) (subtypes 1 or 2) and Adenovirus infections. Monocyte function increased during EHV-1 subtype 2 and Adenovirus infection. Conversely, there was an impairment of monocyte ingestion during EHV-1 subtype 1 infection which was ascribed to virus replication in peripheral blood mononuclear cells. PMN phagocytosis was not decreased in any of the infections studied. The raised levels of haemolytic complement in animals which subsequently developed...
Calisher CH, Maness KS.During the summer and fall of 1971, epizootic and epidemic Venezuelan equine encephalitis was detected in Texas. Isolates of epizootic (IB) and vaccine (TC-83) strains were distinguished by virulence of the former for guinea pigs. Vaccine virus was isolated from 1 to 14 days after vaccination and neutralization tests demonstrated the appearance of antibody about a week after vaccination. Viremia titers of subtype IB in horses ranged from 2.2 to 8.3 log10 suckling mouse intracranial 50% lethal doses per ml. Of 101 equines from which Venezuelan equine encephalitis virus (IB or TC-83) strains wer...
Hommel D, Bollandard F, Hulin A.Venezuelan equine encephalitis (VEE) is a mosquito-borne viral disease that occurs in equine species and in man. The strains can be grouped epidemiologically into two major categories: enzootic and epizootic. Enzootic strains cause sporadic human disease and are not associated with disease among equines. These strains are found throughout Florida. Central America, northern South America and Brazil. Epizootic strains are associated with enormous morbidity and mortality in equine species. In man, VEE virus infections are largely asymptomatic and in children and young adults there is an increased...
Wang L, Tong G, Liu H, Yang Z, Qiu H, Kong X, Wang M.Proviral DNA was extracted from donkey leukocyte infected with Chinese donkey leukocyte attenuated equine infectious anemia virus (DLA-EIAV), and peripheral blood lymphocytes (PBL) from a horse infected with the virulent EIAV strain Liaoning (EIAV L). The entire proviral DNA from both viruses was cloned and sequenced. The lengths of complete genomic sequences of DLA-EIAV and EIAV L provirus were 8266 bp and 8235 bp, respectively. Sequence comparison indicated that DLA-EIAV shares 97.0% and 97.5% in sequence homology with EIAV L and donkey-adapted EIAV (DA-EIAV), respectively. Lots of variation...
Rola J, Socha W, Zmudzinski JF.Nucleotide and amino acid sequences of ORFs 5, 6 and 7 of EAV during persistent infection in the stallion of the Malopolska breed were analysed in the study. A total of 11 blood and semen samples were collected between 2004 and 2011. The titre of specific EAV antibodies in this carrier stallion was maintained at a high level throughout the study and was equal approximately 1:128. The sequence analysis of ORF5 showed 16 variable sites including 12 with synonymous substitutions and 4 with non-synonymous substitutions. The degree of nucleotide sequence identity among the strains ranged from 98.92...
Larsen LE, Storgaard T, Holm E.The study describes for the first time the phylogenetic relationship between equine arteritis virus (EAV) isolated from asymptomatic virus-shedding stallions and fatal cases of equine viral arteritis (EVA) in an European country. EAV was isolated from three dead foals and an aborted foetus during three different outbreaks of EVA. From these fatalities, the complete open reading frame 5, encoding the EAV G(L) protein, was amplified by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction and subjected to nucleotide sequence analysis. Furthermore, DNA sequences were obtained from virus isolated from s...
Laabassi F, Dheilly N, Beck C, Amaral R, Gonzalez G, Gaudaire D, Madeline A, Lecouturier F, Lecollinet S, Zientara S, Hans A, Valle-Casuso JC.In order to determine the prevalence of equine infectious anemia virus (EIAV), Usutu virus (USUV), and West Nile virus (WNV) in eastern Algerian drylands, 340 sera from distinct equids have been collected from 2015 to 2017. Serological analysis for the presence of antibodies against EIAV and flaviviruses was performed using commercially available ELISAs. Sera detected positive, doubtful, or negative close to the doubtful threshold in flavivirus ELISA were tested by the virus neutralization test (VNT), using WNV and USUV strains. The prevalence of WNV antibodies with ELISA was 11.47% (39/340) a...
Edington N, Wright JA, Patel JR, Edwards GB, Griffiths L.Equine adenovirus 1 was recovered after four to six passages from two out of three cases of cauda equina neuritis (CEN) using kidney monolayers. Similar treatment of lumbo-sacral spinal cord from six normal horses did not yield adenovirus. All three cases of CEN had antibodies to the neuritogenic myelin protein P2 while immunofluorescence demonstrated that autologous IgG bound to the myelin of affected nerves. Adenovirus was not detected in neural tissue by immunofluorescence.
Fitzmaurice T, Walker C, Kukreja A, Sun Y, Brown SM, Field HJ.A series of mutants of equine herpesvirus-1 (EHV-1) which contain deletions in non-essential genes was previously characterized in a murine intranasal infection model. One mutant, ED71 which was shown to be attenuated in the model, was further characterized by inoculation into pregnant mice. Despite the attenuation previously reported, intranasal inoculation of pregnant mice resulted in premature parturition and the birth of dead or dying foetuses. Furthermore, mice inoculated before pregnancy with the same mutant, and subsequently challenged 14 days after conception with wild-type virus, were...
Virtanen J, Hautaniemi M, Dutra L, Plyusnin I, Hautala K, Smura T, Vapalahti O, Sironen T, Kant R, Kinnunen PM.We report a sequencing protocol and 121-kb poxvirus sequence from a clinical sample from a horse in Finland with dermatitis. Based on phylogenetic analyses, the virus is a novel parapoxvirus associated with a recent epidemic; previous data suggest zoonotic potential. Increased awareness of this virus and specific diagnostic protocols are needed.
Ohta M, Bannai H, Kambayashi Y, Tsujimura K, Tamura N, Iwamoto Y, Wakuno A, Yamayoshi S, Kawaoka Y, Nemoto M.Updating vaccine strains is important to control equine influenza (EI). Previously, we reported that a monovalent inactivated EI vaccine derived from a virus generated by reverse genetics (RG) elicited immunogenicity in horses. In the present study, we compared antibody responses to a bivalent inactivated EI vaccine generated by RG and a commercially available bivalent inactivated EI (CO) vaccine derived from wild-type equine influenza viruses in Thoroughbred horses. The CO vaccine contained A/equine/Ibaraki/1/2007 (Florida sub-lineage clade 1) and A/equine/Yokohama/aq13/2010 (Florida sub-line...
Na W, Song M, Yeom M, Park N, Kang B, Moon H, Jeong DG, Kim JK, Song D.H3N8 equine influenza virus (EIV) causes respiratory diseases in the horse population, and it has been demonstrated that EIV can transmit into dogs owing to its availability on receptors of canine respiratory epithelial cells. Recently, we isolated H3N8 EIV from an EIV-vaccinated horse that showed symptoms of respiratory disease, and which has a partially truncated nonstructural gene (NS). However, it is not clear that the NS-truncated EIV has an ability to cross the host species barrier from horses to dogs as well. Here, we experimentally infected the NS-truncated H3N8 EIV into dogs, and moni...