A preliminary study on the pathogenicity of a strain of caprine herpesvirus-1.

The strain BA-1 of caprine herpesvirus-1 (CpHV-1), isolated from latently infected goats, was inoculated intranasally into three five-year-old goats. The animals developed fever and leukopenia. The signs began on post-inoculation day (PID) 4 and lasted 7 days. In one goat herpes-like lesions appeared on the vulvar area on PID 7. Virus was consistently recovered from the nasal and the vaginal swabbings obtained from the three goats. Virus was never recovered from the ocular and rectal swabbings nor from any buffy coat samples. However, the buffy coats were positive for viral DNA detected by polymerase chain reaction (PCR). All isolates from the experimental goats were identical in their restriction patterns to the original BA-1 and were similar to the reference E/CH strains of CpHV-1.