A survey of Ovine Herpesvirus-2 (OvHV-2) infection among Ahvaz sheep population by PCR

Document Type : Research Paper

Abstract

    Malignant catarrhal fever (MCF) is one of the most important viral diseases of cattle and some other animal species. MCF in cattle is due to infection by two viruses: alcelaphineherpesvirus-1 (AlHV-1) and ovine herpesvirus-2 (OvHV-2). Epidemiologically, MCF in cattle is associated with wildebeests (natural host of AlHV-1) or sheep (natural host of OvHV-2). The aim of this study was to investigate the OvHV-2 infection in the sheep population of Ahvaz. Therefore, 100 whole blood samples were collected from sheep of the region and tested by PCR. Initially buffy coats were separated from the blood samples and subjected to DNA extraction. Thereafter, the presence of OvHV-2 DNA in the samples was assessed by a semi-nested PCR. The results indicated that 82% of the sampled sheep were carrier of OvHV-2 DNA. Infection rate observed in this study was lower than in some previous studies. This difference could be due to breed differences of sheep or genetic diversity of OvHV-2.

Keywords

Main Subjects