Unmasking the Ongoing Challenge of Equid Herpesvirus- 1 (EHV-1) : A Comprehensive Review

Equid herpesviruses (EHVs) are a group of highly impactful viral pathogens that affect horses, presenting a substantial risk to the global equine industry. Among these, equid herpesvirus-1 (EHV-1) primarily causes respiratory infections. However, its ability to spread to distant organs can lead to severe consequences such as abortion and neurological diseases. These viruses can enter a dormant phase, with minimal activity, and later reactivate to trigger active infections at any time. Recently, there has been a notable rise in the prevalence of a particularly devastating strains of EHV-1 known as equid herpesviral myeloencephalopathy (EHM). In the light of dynamic nature of EHV-1, this review provides a thorough overview of EHV-1 and explores how advances in viral biology affect the pathophysiology of viral infection. The information presented here is crucial for understanding the dynamics of EHV-1 infections and creating practical plans to stop the virus's global spread among equid populations

Cross Sectional, Seroprevalence Study of Peste des Petits Ruminants and the Related Risk Factors During Outbreak in Goats’ Farm in Egypt

Peste des Petits ruminants' virus (PPRV) is a notifiable transboundary and economically significant viral disease that affects goats and sheep. The current study was conducted to identify the seroprevalences of PPRV in goat farm in Marsa-Matroh province, Egypt during an outbreak in 2022. Moreover, this work aims to study the relevant risk factors directly related to the virus infection and attempt molecular characterization and phylogenetic analysis of the circulating strain. The samples included 356 sera, 154 nasal swabs, and 10 tissue samples were collected for PPRV screening and molecular characterization. The seroprevalence percent was found of 42.69%.  It was observed that the prevalence rate, and case-fatality rate were higher under 6 months of age than in adults, and referring to sex, females had a more significant disease incidence than males. Based on phylogenetic analysis; the strains of the current study: PPR/AHRI-Matrouh1/Egy/2022 (accession number: OP881991) and PPR/AHRI-Matrouh2/Egy/2022 (accession number: OP881992) were identified as PPRV lineage IV, with 99.2% and 98.8% identity to the Ethiopian strain (Accession number MK571524) and Sudanese strain (Accession no HQ131931) respectively. An efficient PPR vaccination program with rigorous quarantine measures at the borders is advised to be implemented in the country to control the spread of the disease and avoid the entry of novel strains into the Egyptian governorates

Longitudinal Study of Some Bacterial, Parasitic, and Viral Enteric Pathogens isolated from Diarrheic Calves from Dairy Herd in Egypt

Neonatal calf diarrhea remains one of the most important problems faced by livestock, causing great economic losses. Fecal samples were collected from 100 diarrheic calves in Al-Fayoum governorate, Egypt during 2021, and 2022, to investigate the prevalence of Enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli (ETEC), Salmonella typhimurium, Klebsiella pneumonia, Clostridium perfringens, bovine rotavirus, bovine coronavirus, and Cryptosporidium parvum which are the major enteropathogens associated with neonatal calf diarrhea, the prevalence of enteropathogens were 58%, 29%, 34%, 14%, 35%, 8%, and 65% respectively. Molecular characterization was performed to confirm the E. coli, Klebsiella pneumonia, Salmonella typhimurium, Clostridium perfringens, and Cryptosporidium isolates and to detect some virulent genes associated with their pathogenicity. All the bacterial isolates gave a clear band with 16S rRNA. In E. coli, virulent genes (K99, F41, phoA) were detected, also; Salmonella strains were found positive for the invA and sopB gene, while all Clostridium perfringens strains were tested positive for Alpha and Beta toxin but negative for Epsilon toxin. On the other hand, all Klebsiella pneumoniae isolates were tested positive with iutA and fimH genes. Also, the in-vitro antibiotic sensitivity testing of bacterial isolates was applied. Statistical analysis was carried out to determine the potential influence of age factor on the reported prevalences of concurrent infections, which revealed that the animals age significantly affected the infection prevalence in all pathogens inversely excepts those infected by Klebsiella was affected by age directly, and those infected by E. Coli, or Cryptosporidium, were not affected by age at all. Good hygienic management and good vaccination program are very important to overcome acute diarrhea in neonate calves and the misuse of antibiotic revealed the presence of multidrug resistance isolates of some enteropathogenic bacteria

Molecular detection, phylogenetic analysis and genetic diversity of recently isolated foot-and-mouth disease virus serotype A African topotype, Genotype IV

Background Surveillance for circulating emerging diseases of economic importance has a major role in the rapid response to major pathogen outbreaks. Foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV) is one of the significant endemic viruses in Egypt. FMDV is periodically investigated for monitoring evolution and emergence of new variants. The genetic characterization of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) virus serotype A responsible for recent outbreaks of FMD in Egypt was determined. Methods Samples were collected from different locations and virus isolation was performed using BHK-21 cells. Viral RNA was extracted and samples were screened for FMDV using real-time RT-PCR. DNA sequence analysis was performed and computational and bioinformatics analyses were used to determine the substitution rates and phylogenetic relationship. Results Sequence and phylogenetic analyses of full-length 1D region of FMDV samples collected from different governorates in 2020 showed close similarity to Egyptian FMDV strains from serotype A-African topotype-G-IV with genetic variation of 6.5%. Recently isolated FMDV strains showed high genetic variations from locally used vaccine strains in the major antigenic sites of VP1 region. Conclusions Although, efforts made by the veterinary authorities to implement an effective mass vaccination plan, the recently detected FMDV strains in this study could not be subtyped using the FMDV primers routinely used for molecular serotyping. These dissimilarities raise the alarm for reconsideration of the FMDV isolates used in vaccine manufacture. Clearly close monitoring of FMD in Egypt is urgently required to define the risks of future outbreaks and to ensure appropriate control measures against FMD major outbreaks

Overview of African horse sickness virus (AHSV) situation in Egypt from 2017 to 2022

African horse sickness (AHS) is a non-contagious arthropod-borne infectious disease of Equidae. Because of its severity and quick spread, It is cosidered as a notifiable disease. The current study intended to look into the current suitation of the vector-borne African horse sickness virus (AHSV) in Egypt, determine viral seroprevelance, and assess the associated risk factors. In this context, 2739 sera and 150 spleen samples were collected from different Egyptian governorates and tested for AHSV screening. The sera were investigated for presence of antibodies against AHSV whilst spleen samples were tested for AHSV Ag and RNA detection. The obtained results revealed that all 2739 sera samples tested negative for AHSV antibodies. Furthermore, using ELISA and conventional reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), to identify AHSV Ag and nucleic acid, the 150 tested spleen samples gave negative results with both assays. In conclusion, the recorded results indicated the absence of antibodies, antigen, and viral nucleic acid of AHSV in all tested samples which proved that there is no circulating virus in the investigated Egyptian governorates in the period from 2017 to 2022. Evenually, the effective control programs are recommended by carrying out further epidemiological investigations to understand the current situation of arboviruses in the country

Overview of African horse sickness virus (AHSV) situation in Egypt from 2017 to 2022

African horse sickness (AHS) is a non-contagious arthropod-borne infectious disease of Equidae. Because of its severity and quick spread, It is cosidered as a notifiable disease. The current study intended to look into the current suitation of the vector-borne African horse sickness virus (AHSV) in Egypt, determine viral seroprevelance, and assess the associated risk factors. In this context, 2739 sera and 150 spleen samples were collected from different Egyptian governorates and tested for AHSV screening. The sera were investigated for presence of antibodies against AHSV whilst spleen samples were tested for AHSV Ag and RNA detection. The obtained results revealed that all 2739 sera samples tested negative for AHSV antibodies. Furthermore, using ELISA and conventional reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), to identify AHSV Ag and nucleic acid, the 150 tested spleen samples gave negative results with both assays. In conclusion, the recorded results indicated the absence of antibodies, antigen, and viral nucleic acid of AHSV in all tested samples which proved that there is no circulating virus in the investigated Egyptian governorates in the period from 2017 to 2022. Evenually, the effective control programs are recommended by carrying out further epidemiological investigations to understand the current situation of arboviruses in the country