Characterization of a bovine herpesvirus type 4 isolated from the spinal cord of a cow with astasia.

A bovine herpesvirus (BHV) strain designated B11-41, was recently isolated from the spinal cord of a cow with astasia. By BHV type specific polymerase chain reaction (PCR), a BHV-4 specific fragment was amplified from the DNA of strain B11-41. The nucleotide sequence of the PCR product revealed high homologies (98.4% and 99.8%) with those of two BHV-4 strains (Movar 33/63 and 86-068). The BamHI restriction endonuclease cleavage patterns of the B11-41 were more similar to those of BHV-4 than those of other types of BHV. BHV-4 is divided into two groups, European and American. The EcoRI, and BamHI, and HindIII restriction endonuclease analysis demonstrated that strain B11-41 was closely related to the American type of BHV-4. It was concluded that B11-41 was identified as a BHV-4 that belongs to the American group. Additionally, the results of this study may indicate that the nervous system is one of the sites of viral latency in natural infection.