Serosurveillance and Molecular Detection of Bovine Herpesvirus1(BHV-1) in Cattle and Buffaloes in Baghdad

Infectious bovine rhinotracheitis virus (IBRV)-caused clinical menfestations limits animal trades and cause major economic losses in large ruminants. However, the symptoms are mainly not life-threatening. Assessment of true prevalence of IBR would be phenomenal in devising control strateges against the disease.This study aim to address the field clinical observations of IBRusing serological and molecular approaches in cattle and buffaloes in differnet Baghdad governorates.A total of 368 animals (243 cattle and 125 buffaloes) were sampled during July – December 2016 and screened for the presence of antibodies agianstBHV-I using indirect ELISA. Atotal of 131 (35.59%) samples were positive by indirect ELISA and the positivity of80 (32.92%) samples from cattle and 51 (40.80%) samples from buffaloes were determined. The clinical symptoms which accompanied the positive casesinclude respiratory signs, ocular signs, abortion, diarrhea and fever.In cattle, highest positive cases (n=16, 20%) were in animals whichwere showing respiratory signs. Amongest the positive cases, a lowest seropostivity (n=1, 1.25%) was recorded in animals that were also positive for clinical signs such as abortion and mastitis with or without fever. In buffaloes, the highest positive cases (n=15, 29.41) were in animals that shown respiratory signs accompanied with fever. The lowest positive cases in animals that were showing clicnical signs including ocular signs, respiratory and ocular and abortion accompanied with ocular plus fever.Among samples that were serologically positive, a total of50 different samples (whole blood, nasal swabs and abomasal contents of aborted fetuses) from both cattle and buffaloes were subjected to conventional PCR for molecular detection. Out of testedsamples, 37 (74.00%) samples were positive for the presence of viral genetic material with expected product size of 175bp. Presence of BHV1 was highest in abomasal contents (87.50%) followed by whole blood (83.33%) and nasal swabs (55.55%). Taken together, the findings of the study demonstrate the prevalence of the disease in the country and warrant devising and planning control measure to prevent economic lossess to livestock industry.