HIGHER PREVALENCE OF BORNA-DISEASE-VIRUS INFECTION IN BLOOD-DONORS LIVING NEAR THOROUGHBRED HORSE FARMS

It is believed that Borna disease virus (BDV), an etiological agent of progressive polioencephalomyelitis in horses and sheep, is closely as sociated with psychiatric disorders in humans since the prevalence of BDV is higher in psychiatric patients than in blood donors. We investi gated whether or not BDVs in humans are derived from infected domestic animals, by characterizing the BDVs in blood donors and horses derive d from the same region of Hokkaido island, Japan. The seroprevalences (2.6 to 14.8%) of BDV were significantly higher in the blood donors fr om four regions where most horse farms are concentrated, compared with only 1% in the blood donors from Sapporo, the largest city in Hokkaid o. BDV RNA was also detected in peripheral blood mononuclear cells fro m most of the seropositive horses and blood donors by nested reverse t ranscriptase-polymerase chain reaction. These findings support that BD V may be horizontally transmitted, at least in part, from infected hor ses to humans. (C) 1997 Wiley-Liss, Inc.