Abstract
Equid herpesvirus 8 (EHV-8), also known as asinine herpesvirus type 3 (AHV-3), can cause severe respiratory disease, abortion in mares, and neurological disorders. There is limited information on the prevalence of EHV-8 in donkeys in China. In this study, we investigated EHV-8 infection in donkeys using PCR, resulting in the identification of a field strain, termed EHV-8 SD2020113, which was isolated using RK-13 cells and characterized by high-throughput sequencing and transmission electron microscopy. Our data indicated that 38.7% (457/1180) of donkeys showed the presence of EHV-8 in blood samples. Analysis of the ORF70 gene showed the highest similarity (99.8-99.9% identity) to EHV-8 IR/2015/40 (MF431614.1) and SDLC66 (MW816102), and, in phylogenetic analysis, it clustered with EHV-8 SDLC66 from China. The findings of this study indicate that EHV-8 is likely to represent a threat to the donkey industry, and breeders and veterinarians who care for donkey farms should be aware of this.
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The data supporting the findings of this study can be obtained from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
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Acknowledgements
We thank Prof. Yujiang Sun and Prof. Huiying Ren of Qiandao Agricultural University for providing the clinical samples.
Funding
This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (32002248), the Natural Science Foundation of Shandong Province (ZR2020QC016, ZR2020QC017), the Scientific Research Fund of Liaocheng University (grant numbers 318051919 and 318051918) and the Open Project of Liaocheng University Animal Husbandry Discipline (grant numbers 319312101-23 and 319312101-22).
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TW and CX performed the research, analyzed the data, and drafted the manuscript. YY contributed to sample collection and detection by PCR. WL and MFA contributed to isolating and identifying the virus. CW and YL revised the manuscript. LL conceived the study, performed additional analysis, and finalized the manuscript. All authors contributed to revising the manuscript and have approved the final version.
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All procedures were approved by the Animal Welfare & Ethics Committee of the Institute of Animal Science, Liaocheng University (protocol number LC2019-10), and performed according to the Animal Ethics Procedures and Guidelines of the Ministry of Agriculture of China. Blood and nasal swab samples were collected according to approved procedures. Written consent was obtained from donkey farm owners to include their animals.
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Wang, T., Xi, C., Yu, Y. et al. Characteristics and epidemiological investigation of equid herpesvirus 8 in donkeys in Shandong, China. Arch Virol 168, 99 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00705-023-05704-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00705-023-05704-x