Equine viral arteritis PCR test
equine assay data sheet
Equine
arteritis virus (EAV)
Test code:
S0066 - Ultrasensitive qualitative detection of equine arteritis
virus by reverse transcription coupled real time polymerase chain
reaction. This assay detects but does not differentiate most known EAV
strains.
S0066 is included
in
P0013 - equine respiratory panel
and in P0024 - equine breeding panel
Equine arteritis
virus (EAV) is a positive stranded RNA virus in the family
Arteriviridae, order Nidovirales, and infects horses worldwide.
Sporadic respiratory disease and sudden death in foals, abortion in
mares, and mild or subclinical infections in adult horses (Del Piero,
2000) have been described resulting from this infection. Adult
stallions may become chronically infected; they can become a reservoir
and spread the virus via their semen (Timoney and McCollum, 1993).
Clinical signs of
EAV infection include depression, anorexia, jaundice, rash, nasal
discharge, cough, swelling of the lower limbs, scrotum or mammary
gland, periobital swelling and conjunctivitis (pink eye). Mares and
geldings eliminate infection within 21 to 30 days. However, 30-60 % of
infected stallions become carrriers and shed the virus in their semen.
Only one serotype
of EAV is reported, but there are several strains that differ in their
virulence and neutralization phenotype. Novel genetic variants of EAV
can arise during persistent infection of stallions, and the continued
movement of persistently infected stallions and infective semen have
created a requirement for rapid, sensitive and specific tests to
detect EAV.
The presence of
EAV in the semen of carrier stallions can be detected by virus
isolation in cell culture or by test breeding of stallions to
susceptible mares but both techniques are time consuming, expensive
and cumbersome (Timoney and McCollum, 1993; Mann, 1997,1998).
Serologic detection of this virus is not reliable since the serologic
response of individual horses to EAV may vary with the infecting virus
strain and duration of infection (MacLachlan et al., 1998). Molecular
detection of EAV is a fast, specific and reliable method for
determining EAV infection status.
Utilities:
-
Help confirm the disease causing agent
-
Shorten the time required to confirm a clinical
diagnosis of EAV infection.
-
Help ensure that horse populations are free of EAV
-
Early prevention of spread of this virus
-
Minimize personnel exposure to this virus
-
Safety monitoring of biological products that derive
from horses
References:
Del Piero, F. (2000) Equine Viral Arteritis, review article. Vet.
Pathol. 37:287-296. MacLachlan, N.J., Balasuriya, U.B., Hedges,
J.F., Schweidler, T.M., McCollum, W.H., Timoney, P.J., Hullinger, P.J.
and Patton, J.F. (1998) Serologic Response of Horses to the Structural
Proteins of Equine Arteritis Virus. J Vet Diagn Invest. 10:229-36.
Mann, A.W. (1997) Addressing Equine Viral Arteritis in the United
States. Proc. Annu. Meet. U.S. Anim. Health Assoc., pp. 259–264.
Mann, A.W. (1998) Equine Viral Arteritis. Proc. Annu. Meet. U.S. Anim.
Health Assoc., pp. 314–316. Timoney, P. J. and W. H. McCollum
(1993) Equine Viral Arteritis. Vet. Clin. N. Am. Equine Pract.
9:295-309.
Specimen
requirements:
Nasopharyngeal swab, or 0.2 ml whole blood in EDTA (purple top) tube, or 0.2 ml semen, or 0.2 ml fresh or frozen tissue.
Contact Zoologix if advice is needed to determine an appropriate specimen type for a specific diagnostic application. For specimen types not listed here, please contact Zoologix to confirm specimen acceptability and shipping instructions.
For all specimen
types, if there will be a delay in shipping, or during very warm
weather, refrigerate specimens until shipped and ship with a cold pack
unless more stringent shipping requirements are specified. Frozen
specimens should be shipped so as to remain frozen in transit. See
shipping instructions for more
information.
Turnaround
time:
2 business days
Methodology:
Qualitative reverse
transcription coupled real time PCR
Normal range:
Nondetected
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