Studies on herpesvirus infections of goats in Turkey : prevalence of antibodies to bovine herpesvirus 1

Herpesvirus infections of domestic ruminants are about economic losses due to respiratory and reproductive problems. Bovine herpesvirus 1 (BHV-1) is a major pathogen of bovines world-wide and causes different clinical manifestations including infectious bovine rhinotracheitis (IBR), infectious pustular vulvovaginitis (IPV) / balanopostitis (IPB) and meningoencephalitis [3]. These conditions are related to strains of BHV-1 subtype 1, subtype 2 and subtype 3, respectively [23]. BHV-1 subtype 3 was later classified as BHV-5 [19]. Recently, it have been demonstrated that both BHV-1 and BHV-5 are causative agents of bovine encephalomyelitis [15, 18]. Caprine herpesvirus 1 (CapHV-1) of goats is also distributed world-wide and produce generalised infections, mainly causes digestive distress in young goats and may result in abortion or reproductive failures in adult goats [13]. Both BHV-1 and CapHV-1 are classified in the subfamily Alphaherpesvirinae [19] and show important biological properties of this group such as establishing latency [1, 7]. Cross-species infections of bovine and caprine herpesviruses have been previously demonstrated [21, 24]. The two viruses have capability to infect either host, but pathogenicity is restricted to the original host [10]. Thus, one of those species could be latently infected by the virus of other species without clinical reflection and may act as a reservoir for infection of natural host. This situation may lead creation of critical problems in regard to control programs against BHV1 infection in cattle. ARTICLE ORIGINAL