A preliminary study on the pathogenicity of a strain of caprine herpesvirus-1

The strain BA-1 of caprine herpesvirus-1 (CpHV-1), isolated from latently i nfected goats, was inoculated intranasally into three five-year-old goats. The animals developed fever and leukopenia. The signs began on post-inocula tion day (PID) 4 and lasted 7 days. In one goat herpes-like lesions appeare d on the vulvar area on PID 7. Virus was consistently recovered from the na sal and the vaginal swabbings obtained from the three goats. Virus was neve r recovered from the ocular and rectal swabbings nor from any buffy coat sa mples. However, the buffy coats were positive for viral DNA detected by pol ymerase chain reaction (PCR). All isolates from the experimental goats were identical in their restriction patterns to the original BA-1 and were simi lar to the reference E/CH strains of CpHV-1. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.