Turk Hijyen ve Deneysel Biyoloji Dergisi, cilt.79, sa.3, ss.469-476, 2022 (Scopus)
© 2022,Turk Hijyen ve Deneysel Biyoloji Dergisi. All Rights Reserved.Objective: Malignant catarrhal fever (MCF), is a sporadic disease with high mortality caused by a group of viruses that are classified in Herpesviridae, in subfamily Gammaherpesvirinae and genus Macavirus. Alcelaphine gammaherpesvirus-1 (AlHV-1) and Ovine gammaherpesvirus-2 (OvHV-2), are two pathogens in the Macavirus genus that play an important role in the etiology of the disease. OvHV-2 of which the sheep is an asymptomatic carrier worldwide, is transmissed to cattle with close contact and results in a lymphoproliferative and fatal disease of MCF. The Husbandry of cattle and sheep together or selling of the species in animal markets in close contact has a role in spreading of OvHV-2. In this study, we aimed to investigate a bull that was purchased in a market at the 2017 Festival of Sacrifice, after 3 weeks of incubation period, that had symptoms of opacity in the eyes, nasal and ocular mucopurulent discharge and accompanying nervous system symptoms. Methods: We used conventional polymerase chain reaction (PCR) to investigate virus presence in blood and swab samples. Amplicons that were obtained from PCR were sequenced and raw data of referance sequences were compared to references previously recorded to GenBank. Phylogenetic analysis was performed with MEGA 5.0 software. Results: After PCR analysis of blood and swab samples, targeting the tegument protein coding region of OvHV-2, an amplicon of 422-bp was obtained. Sequencing and phylogenetical analyses revealed that OvHV-2 strain in this study was closely related to India, Egypt and Iraq strains and relatively distant to German, Canadian, Brazilian and African strains. Conclusion: We conclude that, in Muslim countries unregulated animal markets which are formed during the Festival of Sacrifice have a significant risk of spread for OvHV-2 and different species should not be sold together in these areas.