Detection and Characterization of Malignant Catarrhal Fever Virus in Cattle, Sheep and Deer using Real Time PCR
Detection and Characterization of Malignant Catarrhal Fever Virus in Cattle, Sheep and Deer using Real Time PCR
El-Tarabili M. M., El-Shahidy M. S., Rifaat M. M., Kania S. A. and Abdelwahab Shahira A.
ABSTRACT
Malignant Catarrhal Fever (MCF) is one of the most important viral diseases of deer and bison, also cattle and goat can be infected. The MCF is caused by gammaherpes viruses, genus rhadinovirus; which includes a group of viruses including ovine herpesvirus-2 (OvHV-2), caprine herpesvirus 2 (CpHV-2) and white tailed dear strain (MCFV-WTD). Malignant catarrhal fever virus infection characterized by sporadic occurrence, fever and high mortality. In this study two real time PCR assays had been used to detect the MCF virus strains in both cattle and deer. The virus was detected in cattle samples by Ovine MCF RT-PCR while was detected in deer samples by a newly developed assay for deer MCF. Prevalence of ovine MCF was 18.5% in cattle and 58% in sheep. Nucleotide sequencing analysis of selected cases from cattle and deer showed that the similarities among the detected positive samples and published one ranged between 98-100% for both. The high prevalence of MCF in cattle and deer shows the significant economic burden of the disease in these animal species.
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