Mammalia: Proboscidea: Elephant Immune System

Abegglen, Lisa M.; Fuery, Angela; Kiso, Wendy K.; Schmitt, Dennis L.; Ling, Paul D.; Schiffman, Joshua D.

doi:10.1007/978-3-319-76768-0_24

Cited by 3 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 79 publications

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“…Death can occur quickly, within 1-7 days after clinical onset [4,5], with a mortality rate of up to 85% [1,6]. Identifying changes in blood hematology in response to EEHV infection are useful in diagnosing and monitoring disease progression [7], being detectable several days before clinical signs manifest [2,8,9]. Lymphopenia, monocytopenia, and thrombocytopenia are hallmarks of EEHV-HD viremia [2,8,[10][11][12].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Longitudinal Study of Hematology and Stress Biomarker Profiles in Young Asian Elephants (Elephas Maximus) in Relation to Elephant Endotheliotropic Herpesvirus (EEHV) in Thailand

Boonprasert

Yun

Kosaruk

et al. 2021

Animals

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Elephant endotheliotropic herpesvirus hemorrhagic disease (EEHV-HD) is a virulent disease that causes severe hemorrhage and sudden death in Asian elephant calves. A change in hematology profiles is one indicator of infection before clinical signs appear; however, to be effective, individual baselines and age-matched reference values are needed. Stress has been speculated to be a factor in clinical EEHV cases, but relationships have not been demonstrated empirically. This study evaluated blood hematology and several stress response markers—salivary cortisol, fecal glucocorticoid metabolites (FGM), salivary Immunoglobulin A (SIgA), and fecal IgA (FIgA) in samples collected for 1 year from three healthy calves with no EEHV history (non-EEHV), and six that had previously been infected, developed clinical signs and survived (prior-EEHV). Hematology values between non-EEHV and prior-EEHV elephants were not different and within published reference ranges. Concentrations of salivary cortisol, FGM, SIgA, and FIgA also were variable and showed seasonal differences, but no relationships to prior EEHV status. One of the prior EEHV calves became re-infected, developed hemorrhagic disease (HD), and died during the study period. That calf exhibited lymphocytopenia, monocytopenia, and thrombocytopenia. Additionally, all stress biomarker concentrations were lower in the 12 days before viremia was observed. Thus, as in other studies, changes in hematology occur with EEHV infection, while preliminary data in one calf suggests that stress-response measures might also be informative and should be studied further.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Longitudinal Study of Hematology and Stress Biomarker Profiles in Young Asian Elephants (Elephas Maximus) in Relation to Elephant Endotheliotropic Herpesvirus (EEHV) in Thailand

Boonprasert

Yun

Kosaruk

et al. 2021

Animals

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“…However, it should be noted that despite the fact that these animals succumbed to EEHV-HD, the elephant D1 group exhibited high antibody levels, whereas all elephants in group D were found to be negative by the EEHV-DNApol ELISA test. This determination may be attributed to the fact that the elephants in the D1 group could produce the antibody against EEHV before death, while elephants in the D2-D7 groups succumbed to the virus after just a few days, prior to generation of the EEHV-primed T cell [ 43 ].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Development of Nonstructural Protein-Based Indirect ELISA to Identify Elephant Endotheliotropic Herpesvirus (EEHV) Infection in Asian Elephants (Elephas maximus)

Guntawang

Sittisak

Tankaew

et al. 2022

Animals

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Disease caused by elephant endotheliotropic herpesvirus (EEHV) infection is the most highly fatal hemorrhagic disease in Asian elephant calves worldwide. To date, adult elephants that have been infected with EEHV have predominantly displayed mild clinical signs, while they are believed to serve as EEHV shedders to other elephants. Hence, the diagnostic tools employed for monitoring EEHV-active infection are considered vitally important. In this study, partial EEHV-DNA polymerase (DNApol) nonstructural proteins (NSPs) were used to detect anti-EEHV antibodies through the use of an in-house indirect enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). The results were then compared to those obtained from a PCR test. In this study, a total of 175 serum samples were collected from Asian elephants living in elephant camps located in Chiang Mai and Lampang Provinces, Thailand. The elephants were aged between 2 and 80 years old. The overall percentages of positive samples by the PCR and EEHV-DNApol ELISA tests were 4% (21/175) and 12% (21/175), respectively. The ELISAs demonstrated values of 77.9% (95% posterior probability interval (PPI) = 52.5–95%) sensitivity and 87.7% (PPI = 82.5–91.9%) specificity, respectively. Accordingly, the sera obtained from the elephants exhibiting no clinical signs of EEHV infection, and those who were negative according to PCR tests, revealed a value of 14% seropositivity for EEHV-DNApol. Our results indicate that these asymptomatic, active EEHV-infected elephants could likely serve as a source of EEHV shedding within elephant herds. Consequently, the developed EEHV-DNApol NSPs-based ELISA test employed in the present study may be of use for routine monitoring and identification of EEHV shedders in elephant herds, and could be an alternative diagnostic tool for EEHV detection in Asian elephants.

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Development of a cytokine gene expression assay for the relative quantification of the African elephant (Loxodonta africana) cell-mediated immune responses

et al. 2021

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Mammalia: Proboscidea: Elephant Immune System

Cited by 3 publications

References 79 publications

A Longitudinal Study of Hematology and Stress Biomarker Profiles in Young Asian Elephants (Elephas Maximus) in Relation to Elephant Endotheliotropic Herpesvirus (EEHV) in Thailand

A Longitudinal Study of Hematology and Stress Biomarker Profiles in Young Asian Elephants (Elephas Maximus) in Relation to Elephant Endotheliotropic Herpesvirus (EEHV) in Thailand

Development of Nonstructural Protein-Based Indirect ELISA to Identify Elephant Endotheliotropic Herpesvirus (EEHV) Infection in Asian Elephants (Elephas maximus)

Development of a cytokine gene expression assay for the relative quantification of the African elephant (Loxodonta africana) cell-mediated immune responses

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