Isolation and Molecular Characterization of African Horse Sickness Virus AHS Outbreak Cases In Horses in selected areas of Ethiopia
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Date
2021
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Addis Abeba University
Abstract
Equines play an important role in the country‟s economy and are a lifeline for millions of people in rural and peri-urban areas of Ethiopia. However, the productivity and welfare of equids are constrained by numerous infectious diseases especially in developing nations like African Horse Sickness disease (AHS). A H S is one of the major infectious diseases that cause severe socioeconomic losses to the equine population and the national economy in general. A cross-sectional study design was undertaken in equines to isolate and detect African horse sickness virus (AHSV) from November 2019 to May 2021 in selected and epidemic areas of Ethiopia. A Total of 30 whole bloods and 2 tissue specimens were collected aseptically from recently dead and clinically sick equids that manifested prominent signs of the disease and transported under cold chain to the National Veterinary Institute, Bishoftu, Ethiopia. A total of 32 samples were subjected to conventional Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) technique targeting Viral protein 7 (VP7) genes to amplify fragments of segment 7 of all serotypes using sero-group specific primers. Only 7 (21.88%) samples were detected with a band size of 102 bp fragments on a 2% agarose gel elctrophoresis. For serotyping, seven universal PCR positive samples were detected again targeting to a gene encoding viral protein 2 (VP2) using serotype-specific primers. Serotype 9 with a band size of 228 bp was identified from tissue samples. Only tissue samples were grown on Vero cells and showed cytopathic effects characterized by aggregation, rounding and detaching of cells on cell line. In conclusion, African Horse Sickness caused by serotype 9 severely affects equines results in death of horses. Strong strategic control of disease through vaccination should be done and further assessment to determine the potential of outbreaks and genotypic characterization of virus from the outbreaks and insects needs further study
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Keywords
AHS, Horse, Molecular Detection, RT-PCR, Serotype - 9