Investigations of Allerton-type Herpes Virus Infection in East African Game Animals and Cattle

Abstract

Neutralization tests with a strain (BA) of Allerton-type herpes virus, derived from a buffalo (Syncenis caffer) were carried out on 924 sera from 17 species of E. African game animals and on cattle sera from Tanzania (2001), Kenya (792) and Uganda (410). Buffalo populations throughout E. Africa showed a very high rate of infection, with all animals over 2 years of age serologically positive. Antibody was present in some giraffe, waterbuck and hippopotamus sera and, less frequently, in impala, eland, bushbuck and oryx. Data are provided on the titres of positive samples; the mean titre of buffalo sera increased with age. Cattle in many localities of N. Tanzania and S. Kenya showed a very high rate of infection, 85–95% of sera from animals more than 2-years old containing antibody; the titres recorded were lower than those in buffaloes. Very high infection rates were also found in Karamoja and Teso (Uganda) and also in some other areas of Kenya, whilst a considerably lower incidence of infection was detected in W. Nile Province of Uganda and in central Tanzania. Differences in infection rates may have been related to herd size and husbandry practices. It was shown that a wave of infection was probably spreading through cattle in N. Tanzania at about the same time as an outbreak of disease occurred in buffaloes and it is suggested that virus transmission may have been by biting flies. No clinical signs attributable to the virus were reported in cattle but mouth lesions similar to those recorded in buffaloes, or nasal lesions, could have passed undetected. Allerton-type virus probably produces a range of clinical syndromes in cattle, closely resembling those associated with some herpes viruses in primates but infection is seldom related in the field to either pseudo-lumpy skin disease, mammillitis or stomatitis.