GAZELLE HERPESVIRUS-1 - A NEW NEUROTROPIC HERPESVIRUS IMMUNOLOGICALLYRELATED TO EQUINE HERPESVIRUS-1

A herpesvirus was isolated from Thomson's gazelle (Gazella thomsoni) k ept al a zoological garden in Japan during an outbreak of epizootic ac ute encephalitis. The virus, gazelle herpesvirus 1 (GHV-1), was serolo gically related to equine herpesvirus 1 (EHV-1). However, DNA fingerpr ints of GHV-1 were different from those of EHV-l and other equine herp esviruses. Southern hybridization with probes of cloned BamHI fragment s derived from U-L and U-s segments of EHV-I revealed differences in t he DNA restriction profiles throughout the entire genome. Nucleotide s equences were determined for a conserved region of an essential envelo pe glycoprotein B (gB) gene and a type-specific glycoprotein G (gG) ho mologue gene. The predicted amino acid sequence of GHV-1 gB showed 97, 92, 61, and 57% identity to EHV-I, EHV-4, feline herpesvirus, and pse udorabies virus, respectively, indicating that GHV-1 was closer to EHV -1 than any other herpesvirus. The GHV-1 gG gene showed 93.2, 92.3, an d 53% identity to EHV-I, EHV-8, and EHV-4 gGs, respectively. GHV-1 was virulent to suckling mice of the ICR strain by intracerebral inoculat ion and was Virulent to 4-week-old BALB/c mice by intranasal inoculati on, causing neurological symptoms and death. We conclude that GHV-1 is a new type of equine herpesvirus with strong neurotropism. (C) 1997 A cademic Press