Isolation and genetic analysis of Japanese encephalitis virus from a diseased horse in Japan

• Published in: Journal of Veterinary Medical Science Vol. 68; no. 3; pp. 293 - 295
• Main Authors: Yamanaka, T.(Japan Racing Association, Utsunomiya. Equine Research Inst.), Tsujimura, K, Kondo, T, Yasuda, W, Okada, A, Noda, K, Okumura, T, Matsumura, T
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Japan JAPANESE SOCIETY OF VETERINARY SCIENCE 01.03.2006; Japan Science and Technology Agency
• Subjects: Animals; Antibodies, Viral - blood; Base Sequence; CABALLOS; CHEVAL; DEATH; Encephalitis Virus, Japanese - genetics; Encephalitis Virus, Japanese - isolation & purification; Encephalitis, Japanese - veterinary; Encephalitis, Japanese - virology; equine; Fatal Outcome; GENOTIPOS; GENOTYPE; GENOTYPES; Horse Diseases - virology; HORSES; JAPAN; Japanese encephalitis; JAPANESE ENCEPHALITIS VIRUS; JAPON; Male; Mice; MORT; MUERTE; Neutralization Tests - veterinary; Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction - veterinary; Sequence Homology, Nucleic Acid; VIRUS DE LA ENCEFALITIS JAPONESA; VIRUS ENCEPHALITE JAPONAISE; Japan
• ISSN: 0916-7250; 1347-7439
• DOI: 10.1292/jvms.68.293

Japanese encephalitis (JE) developed in an unvaccinated half-bred horse kept in Tottori Prefecture, Japan. The animal showed ataxia with pyrexia and low appetite, and ultimately died. A viral strain was isolated from the cerebrum of the horse and was identified as JE virus (JEV) by RT-PCR using JEV specific primers. The isolated JEV was classified into genotype I by nucleotide sequence analysis of the viral envelope gene. We believe that this is the first report of the genotype I strain being isolated from a horse.