DETECTION OF CANINE HERPESVIRUS-1 IN A WIDE-RANGE OF TISSUES USING THE POLYMERASE CHAIN-REACTION

Canine herpesvirus 1 (CHV-1), a member of the alphaherpesvirus sub-fam ily, is known to cause fatal infections in litters of puppies and may also be involved in infertility, abortion, and stillbirths in adult do gs. The purpose of this study was to determine the presence of CHV-1 D NA using the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) in twelve key sites that have been associated with latency for other herpesviruses. A 605 base pair portion of the viral glycoprotein B (gB) gene was amplified using degenerate primers, cloned, and sequenced. Conventional 20mer primers were designed using this sequence information to amplify a 120 bp fra gment of gB situated between the original degenerate primers. The spec ificity of amplification was confirmed by Southern Blot hybridisation using an internal oligonucleotide probe. DNA was extracted from tissue samples taken from twelve dogs at post mortem and from twenty-four bl ood samples. Nine out of twelve dogs showed evidence of infection with CHV-1; the tissues most commonly affected were lumbo-sacral ganglia ( 5/12 dogs), tonsil (5/12), parotid salivary gland (4/9), and liver (4/ 9). No positive results were detected within the twenty-four blood sam ples. These results indicate that exposure to CHV-1 may be much more c ommon than previously suggested.