Diagnosis of IBR: Improved methods for the diagnosis of ruminant alphaherpesvirus infections in relation to the control of infectious bovine rhinotracheitis

• Research unit: EU RFP
• Project number: 95.0159

Key words (English)

Ruminant herpesviruses; epidemiology; eradication; differentiating PCR; ELISA

Alternative project number (English)

EU project number: FAIR1-PL95-0316

Research programs (English)

EU-programme: 4. Frame Research Programme - 4.3 Biomedical/Health research

Short description (English)

See abstract

Partners and International Organizations (English)

Institute of Virology, University of Liège (B), National Veterinary and Food Institute, Helsinki (FIN), The National Veterinary Institute, Uppsala (S), Moredun Research Institute, Edinburgh (GB), Virology Department, CVL, Weybridge (GB)

Abstract (English)

The eradication of the bovine herpesvirus 1 (BHV-1) infection, which may cause severe economical losses, is planned throughout Europe, but may be hampered by the existence of closely related herpesviruses of other ruminants. The goal of this study is to get knowledge about the risks of acute and latent infection of cattle with other ruminant herpesviruses and about potential BHV-1 reservoirs among other ruminant species, implying the establishment of differentiating diagnostic tests. Our contribution is concentrated on the BHV-1 infection in goats and the caprine herpesvirus 1 (CapHV-1) infection in cattle, and on specific tasks in the establishment of the diagnostic tests.
The evaluation of the in vivo experiments was completed. Both BHV-1 and CapHV-1 were able to infect the foreign host. Interestingly, latent DNA was found in the trigeminal ganglia of goats infected with BHV-1 as well as of calves infected with CapHV-1 (Ros-Bascuñana et al., submitted). Reactivation of the latent infection by dexamethasone treatment, however, was only possible in goats infected with BHV-1. Hence, goats must be considered as a potential reservoir of BHV-1.
Existing monoclonal antibodies and cloned DNA fragments were reproduced and contributed for the establishment of differentiating diagnostic tests. The sequence of the complete BHV-1 genome was made available (database access: BHV1CGEN ). The internal repeat and unique short region of the BHV-5 genome were cloned and partially sequenced. Sequence and primer information was made available to set up a discriminative PCR. To produce recombinant glycoprotein C of BHV-1, BHV-5 and CapHV-1, the baculovirus expression system was used. Baculovirus recombinants carrying the complete gC genes or truncated forms, respectively, were generated by transfection of sf21 cells with recombinant viral DNA. The antigenic properties of the recombinant proteins were determined by immunoblotting methods. Protein purification and analyses of the recombinant gCs as ELISA antigens are in progress.

References in databases (English)

Swiss Database: Euro-DB of the
State Secretariat for Education and Research
Hallwylstrasse 4
CH-3003 Berne, Switzerland
Tel. [phone]
Swiss Project-Number: 95.0159