Neutralising antibody to herpesviruses dervied from wildebeest and hartebeest in wild animals in East Africa.

The sera of 728 game animals, collected in East Africa, were tested for neutralising antibody to a strain (WC11) of wildebeest herpesvirus, which is an important cause of malignant catarrhal fever of cattle. In addition, 290 of these sera were tested for neutralising activity against a closely related herpesvirus (K/30) from hartebeest (Alcelaphus sp.). Antibody was frequently present in three species of the subfamily Alcelaphinae (wildebest, hartebeest and topi) and one of the subfamily Hippotraginae (oryx). No activity was found in the sera of nine other species of four additional subfamilies. The proportion of hartebeest sera positive for WC11 virus (60 per cent) was not significantly different from that neutralising the K/30 isolate (77 per cent) and antibody titres against the two agents did not differ significantly. Of 62 topi sera 40 per cent neutralised WC11 virus, while all of three oryx sera were positive. It is suggested that the antibody detected in hartebeest, topi and oryx was induced by infection with viruses related to, but not identical with, the WC11 and K/30 strains. Some characteristics of the latter indicated that it was not the usual herpesvirus of hartebeest and may have been derived from wildebeest. It is proposed that the group of viruses involved should be provisionally designated as 'alcelaphine herpesviruses' in order to separate them from the rest of the 'bovid' herpesviruses, a name proposed by the Herpesvirus Sbucommittee of the International Committee on the Nomenclature of Viruses.