Bovine Herpesvirus-1 antibodies levels in unvaccinated Dairy Herds in Ecuador / Cedeño-Sanchez et al.__________________________________
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INTRODUCTION
Bovine herpesvirus type 1 (BHV-1) is a member of the Herpesviridae
family, subfamily Alphadenovirinae [1, 18, 29], which in ruminants,
domestic and wild, form a large group of pathogens with high
morbidity [20, 22]. BHV-1 is responsible for economic losses in milk
production worldwide [5, 24], due to the use of medications, milk
discarding, mortalities [3, 10, 20, 25] and reproductive failures, such
as embryonic death or abortions [6, 15], increasing the importance,
due to the lack of regularization and the globalization of animal
markets or their products [13, 16].
Only one BHV-1 serotype has been recognize, but subtypes have
been describe based on viral desoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) restriction
patterns [18]. BHV-1 is the causative agent of bovine infectious
rhinotracheitis (IBR) [26, 29], which manifests as rhinotracheitis
and conjunctivitis [28], in addition to others syndromes such as
reproductive, encephalic and enteric [4, 8, 20]. IBR is part of the bovine
respiratory disease complex, which is caused by a combination of
viral and bacterial pathogens [3]. IBR is considered a specic species
disease of cattle (Bos taurus) [26], although it has been reported that
sheep (Ovis aries) are sensitive [10], and has cross immunity with other
herpesviruses of other animals, such as goat (Capra hircus), buffalo
(Bubalus Bubalis) or cervids [5, 9, 22]. BHV-1 is found in conjunctival,
nasal and reproductive secretions [29], transmitted directly through
aerosols or by contact with infected animals, and indirectly by water
and food contaminated with body secretions, and even by semen used
in articial insemination or embryo transfer [1, 5, 24, 26].
During the pathogenesis of BHV-1 infection, the infected animal
goes through the acute or viremia phases, of latency that can generate
long-term infections, and periodic viral reactivation in the host [26,
29], where it can present sporadic periods of viral excretion and
serve as a potential source of transmission [1]. Antibodies obtained
by passive immunity through colostrum do not prevent initial viral
replication and follow the establishment of latency, becoming latent
seronegative carriers, until seroconversion or viral reactivation occurs
[14]. The main consequence of BHV-1 infection, after accessing a wide
range of organs and tissues, is to cause a variety of symptoms such
as keratoconjunctivitis, tracheitis, enteritis, infertility and abortions
[12, 15, 26].
Antibodies levels against BHV-1, has a wide range in the reported
studies of different herds, which ranges from moderate, between
20 and 30% [5, 15], to high frequency greater than 50% [1-3, 6, 12,
21, 24]. These differences between studies could be due to types of
productive systems [20, 24], preventive measures used [1, 24], or the
viral isolate involved [20]. Among the factors that have been reported
as risk, there is mainly age, where older animals are the ones with
the highest seroprevalence [6, 7, 12, 24, 29], sex [1, 24], the history of
reproductive problems in herds [12, 20], and the non-implementation
of preventive measures [14, 15, 18, 20, 28, 29]. BHV-1 antibodies levels
frequency in Ecuador was established at 43% [7], but additional
studies have not been reported and the current status of the disease
is unknown. In the Ecuador Coast Region were used largely for cattle
meat and milk production, where one of the main production areas
is the Chone Canton of the Province of Manabí, being its economic
axis. Cattle production is mostly traditional, where preventive
measures such as vaccination of different diseases, including IBR,
are not carried out. For this reason, an investigation was carried
out to determine seroprevalence against BHV-1 and associated risk
factors, in unvaccinated herds of the tropical wet weather of Ecuador.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
Ethical considerations
To carry out this research, the Norwegian National Research
Ethics Committees guidelines for the use of animal in research were
considered [17].
Study location
The research work was carried out in the Convent Parish, in the
Chone Canton in the Province of Manabí, Ecuador. Geographically
it is between 0°11'35.31" South and 79°54'01.60" West, at 296 meters
above sea level and an average annual temperature ranging from
23 to 30°C. The climate is humid tropical with an annual average of
1,240 cubic millimeters (mm) [11]. It is an area of cattle production,
with extensive grazing in grasslands of introduced pastures (Panicum
maximun, Brachiaria spp.), with sources of water from springs, rivers,
dams and underground wells, with low use of technologies and no
history of prevention against IBR.
Study design
Thirteen dairy PU were used, which had 1,010 animals over six
month’s (mos) olds, at study time [20, 24]. The size of the sample was
determined by cluster sampling, where it is calculated by combining all
the animals of herds under study, using the probability proportional to
the size of each herd [30], and the cattle to be sampled were randomly
selected according to age group in proportion to percentage of different
age groups within each herd [27]. The dependent variable studied
was antibodies levels against BHV-1 frequency and the independents
were age (greater than two yr., less than two yr.), sex (male, female),
presence of vulvovaginal or ocular lesions, breed according to their
phenotypic characteristics (Bos taurus taurus and B. t. indicus) and PU.
Population sample size
The sample size of the bovine population of the 13 PU was 183
animals, of which 141 were older than two yr old. and 42 were younger,
22 males and 141 females, 107 had vulvovaginal or ocular lesions, and
the animals’ number according to their racial predominance was: 98
B. t. indicus and 85 B. t. taurus, respectively.
Blood serum sample collection and storage
Blood sampling was collected via jugular vein in the case of young
animals, and the caudal vein in adult, using Vacutainer® system. The
samples were labeled and transferred in refrigeration in cellar at 4°C
(Ecoshel, C800D, Mexico), to animal health laboratory of the Universidad
Eloy Alfaro de Manabí Extension Chone. The samples were centrifuged
at 3,220 g for 15 minutes (min), for blood serum extraction, which was
deposited in Eppendorf® tubes, identied and stored at –20°C (Thermo
Scientic, 25LCETSSA, USA) until its processing [29].
Competitive Elisa technique
For serological diagnosis, the sera were thawed at room temperature
and analyzed using the competitive ELISA technique. The entire
technique procedure was performed following the instructions of
the manufacturer’s protocol. The ID Screen® IBR gB competition Kit
from the ID laboratory was used (Vet Innovative Diagnostics, Grabels-
FRANCE), for the detection of anti-gB BHV-1 antibodies in serum
samples [19].