ANKARA UNIVERSITESI VETERINER FAKULTESI DERGISI, cilt.65, sa.1, ss.63-68, 2018 (SCI-Expanded)
The aim of this study was to investigate the presence of equid herpesviruses and to elucidate the possible mutual effects of equid alpha and gammaherpesviruses in an outbreak of respiratory tract disease in foals in a private pension stable (transient residency stable), Turkey. For this purpose, nasal swabs (n=21) and peripheral blood leukocytes (n=28) from 28 foals with respiratory tract diseases, and tissue samples from one dead foal were tested for equid herpesvirus-1, -4, -2 and -5 by multiplex nested PCR targeting the glycoprotein B (gB) gene. Of the 29 sampled animals, 3.4% (1/29), 58.6% (17/29), 58.6% (17/29) and 75.9% (22/29) were found positive for EHV-1, EHV-4, EHV-2 and EHV-5, respectively. Especially, a high ratio of multiple infections (75.9%; 22/29) caused by EHV-4, EHV-2 and EHV-5 were detected in the tested foals. The phylogenetic analysis showed that our equid gammaherpesviruses had a high degree of genetic heterogeneity, in contrast to our EHV-4 strains analyzed.