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Detection of equine herpesvirus 1 DNA in a single embryo and in horse semen by polymerase chain reaction

Detecção de DNA de herpesvírus eqüino-1 em embrião e em sêmen eqüino por meio de PCR

The genome of one equine embryo and three equine semen specimens collected from a Brazilian farm were tested by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) for the presence of EHV-1 and EHV-4-specific timidine kinase (TK) sequences. The PCR detected specific EHV-1 TK gene sequences in all samples tested. The peripheral blood leukocytes (PBL) of the embryo donor mare also was amplified by EHV-1 TK primers. Infectious virus was not recovered from any specimens. The animals did not show any clinical signal of EHV-1 or EHV-4 infections. EHV-4 was not detected in the studied specimens. The results indicate that PCR was more sensitive than virus isolation in cell culture for detecting EHV-1 in semen of carrier horses.

Equine; semen; embryo; EHV-1; EHV-4; PCR


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