Commingling of horses from various populations, together with physiological stress
associated with transport and confinement at a sales complex, may be associated with
detection and transmission of equine herpesvirus type-1 (EHV-1) and -4 (EHV-4). This
prospective cohort study aimed to investigate the currently undefined prevalence of EHV-1
and -4 in young Thoroughbreds at an auction sale in South Africa, and associations between
clinical signs, physiological stress and viral detection.
Ninety, two-year old Thoroughbreds (51 colts, 39 fillies) were consigned from eight farms and
sampled at a South African auction sale. The horses were monitored for pyrexia and nasal
discharge. Nasal swabs were collected for quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR)
assay to detect EHV-1 and -4 and faecal samples were collected for enzyme immunoassay
(EIA) to determine faecal glucocorticoid metabolite (FGM) concentrations.
EHV-4 nucleic acid was detected in some and EHV-1 nucleic acid in none of the population.
Pyrexia and nasal discharge were poor indicators of EHV-4 status. Variation in FGM
concentrations was best explained by transportation and preparation for auction. Peaks in
EHV-4 detection and increases in FGM concentrations were identified shortly post-arrival
and on the first day of auction. Temporal changes in FGM concentrations of horses from
individual farms showed two distinct patterns: Pattern A (biphasic peaks) and Pattern B
(single peak).
It was concluded that sales consignment was associated with some EHV-4 nucleic acid
detection and distinctive physiological stress patterns in this population of young
Thoroughbreds. / Dissertation (MSc)--University of Pretoria, 2014. / tm2015 / Companion Animal Clinical Studies / MSc / Unrestricted
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:up/oai:repository.up.ac.za:2263/46265 |
| Date | January 2014 |
| Creators | Badenhorst, Marcha |
| Contributors | Schulman, Martin L., Page, Patrick Collin, Guthrie, Alan John, Ganswindt, Andre |
| Publisher | University of Pretoria |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Dissertation |
| Rights | © 2015 University of Pretoria. All rights reserved. The copyright in this work vests in the University of Pretoria. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the University of Pretoria. |
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