Molecular characterization and determination of risk factors of sheep-associated Ovine gammaherpesvirus-2 in cattle

Objective: Malignant catarrhal fever (MCF), is a sporadic disease with high mortality caused by a group of viruses that are classified in Herpesviridae , in subfamily Gammaherpesvirinae and genus Macavirus . and Ovine gammaherpesvirus-2 (OvHV-2), are two pathogens close results fatal close to We used chain to from PCR were sequenced and raw data of referance sequences were compared to references previously recorded to GenBank. Phylogenetic analysis was performed with MEGA 5.0 software. Results: After PCR analysis of blood and swab samples, targeting the tegument protein coding region of OvHV-2, an amplicon of 422-bp was obtained. Sequencing and phylogenetical analyses revealed that OvHV-2 strain in this study was closely related to India, Egypt and Iraq strains and relatively distant to German, Canadian, Brazilian and African strains. Conclusion: We conclude that, in Muslim countries unregulated animal markets which are formed during the Festival of Sacrifice have a significant risk of spread for OvHV-2 and different species should not be sold together in these areas.