 |
||||
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
New Research on Herpesvirus in Horses By Kentucky Equine Research Staff · October 7, 2011
Partly as a reaction to the outbreak of equine herpesvirus-1 (EHV-1) in the United States in the summer of 2011, the Morris Animal Foundation is supporting new and continuing research in hopes of developing an improved vaccine against this highly contagious pathogen.
The virus is commonly spread when a healthy horse inhales airborne droplets from the cough of an infected horse or through contact with nasal secretions, aborted placenta, fetus, or uterine fluids from a horse with the disease. Signs of disease in horses infected with EHV-1 may include rhinopneumonitis, a respiratory disease usually found in young horses; abortion in broodmares; and myeloencephalopathy characterized by fever, incoordination, and weakness or paralysis of the hind limbs.
A study being conducted at Colorado State University is using an equine airway culture system to study specific genes that may impair a horse’s early immune response to EHV-1. Results may aid in developing therapies and should aid in the design of better EHV-1 vaccines.
EHV-1 can cause neurologic disease related to inflammation of the blood vessels and the formation of blood clots that prevent oxygen from reaching the spinal cord. Horses may be only mildly affected, possibly losing sensation in the tail. More severely affected horses can show widespread paralysis that necessitates euthanasia. A study at Cornell University is investigating why these blood clots form in horses with EHV-1. It is not known whether the disease changes cells within the bloodstream, or cells that line the blood vessels. Answering this question could lead to treatments that would decrease the number of fatalities in affected horses.
In another study at Cornell University, researchers are attempting to develop new ways to study the equine immune system. Results could lead to a way to speed and simplify diagnosis of EHV-1 and other infectious diseases.
A project at the Freie Universität Berlin in Germany has successfully identified an EHV-1 protein that enables herpesviruses to hide within cells, thus avoiding destruction by the horse’s immune system. This discovery is important in the development of a novel vaccine that will bypass the molecular mechanism that enables EHV-1 to hide.
