Equine Herpes Virus-1: Virus, Immunity and Vaccines

Abstract

Equine Herpes virus-1 (EHV-1) is one of the most common respiratory pathogens of the horse. EHV-1 induces several clinical signs of disease ranging in severity, from mild respiratory distress to abortion in pregnant mares, neonatal foal death and neuropathogenic disorders. This review details some aspects of EHV-1 biology, its life cycle and pathogenicity in the natural host. Protective immunity stimulated by natural EHV-1 infection, which is short lived and depends of both humoral and cellular immune responses, will also be treated here. Vaccination remains today one of the best options to fight EHV-1 infection and several different strategies of vaccination that have been investigated and developed over the past decades will be presented in this report. EHV-1 Eq. abortion virus α2 Respiratory, abortion, neurological EHV-2 Eq. cytomegalovirus γ3 NA EHV-3 Eq. coital exanthema virus α Coital exanthema EHV-4 Eq. rhinopneumonitis virus α2 Respiratory Equus caballus EHV-5 Eq. cytomegalovirus γ3 NA AHV-1/EHV-6 Related to EHV-3 α Coital exanthema AHV-2/EHV-7 Related to EHV-2 γ3 NA Equus asinus AHV-3/EHV-8 Related to EHV-1 α Rhinitis Gazella thomsoni GHV-1/EHV-9 Similar to EHV-1/EHV-8 α Ga.&Eq. neurological Eq. = equine; Ga. = gazelle; NA= not associated.

Quantifying chelonid herpesvirus 5 in symptomatic and asymptomatic rehabilitating green sea turtles

“…Regardless of subfamily, most herpesviruses establish a post-inoculation systemic infection accompanied by a cell-associated viremia (virus present in the blood). In infected individuals, viremia is usually indicative of viral replication, and can be detectable during either the primary infection event or during viral reactivation following a period of latency (Paillot et al 2008).…”

Application of real-time PCR for evaluation of distribution of equine herpesvirus type 1 in tissues of aborted fetuses

“…Infection of umbilical cord blood can disseminate the virus in fetal organs. The secondary replication of EHV-1 in fetal tissues induces multi-organ infection with a variety of macroscopic and microscopic lesions (Edington et al 1991, Paillot et al 2008. Therefore, tissues of aborted fetuses, originating from the lungs, liver, spleen, heart, kidney, thymus and placenta appear to be the most suitable samples for testing.…”

Emergence of equine herpes virus 1 myeloencephalopathy: A brief review

“…However, this season specificity has not been observed in all countries. Paillot et al (2008) reported that neurological signs due to EHM were seen at an increased frequency in standard breeds, Hispanic breeds and draught breeds, with no cases of EHV-induced myeloencephalopathy in archetypical ponies, Haflinger, Fjord and Icelandic horses.…”