A phylogenetic and genotyping study of bovine herpesvirus type 4 (bhv-4) in Turkey

Abstract

Infertility and reproductive infections are the huge problems for the diary management throughout the world. Bovine herpesviruses act an enormous role in these complicated problems. Bovine Herpesvirus Type 1 (BHV-1) is the most outstanding herpesvirus causing genital and uterine tracts infections among other reproductive viral agents, however, Bovine Herpesvirus Type 4 (BHV-4) is also responsible in terms of similar symptoms and diseases. The main aims of the study are both to investigate the underlying potential presence of BHV-4 in subclinical uterine tract infection, and both to perform molecular and recombination analyses. A herd including 25 repeat breeder cows were investi-gated by BHV-4. Two out of them were determined BHV-4 infected after a series of Polymerase Chain Reactions (PCRs) tests which able to amplify partial Glycoprotein B (gB) and Thymidine Kinase (TK) gene regions. Obtained sequences were analyzed by using phylogenetic and recombinational software, and two Maximum Likelihood (ML) tree have been constructed. To results, novel Turkish BHV-4 sequences fell into Genotype I in both constructed Maximum Likelihood (ML) phylogenetic trees, however, no recombination evidence has been observed in relevant software. This report is one of the rare genotyping studies on BHV-4 from Turkey. This study showed that Turkish BHV-4 strains, as molecular, were highly probable to originate from European strains and might be observed in different clinical reflections. This suggests that BHV-4 should be deeply investigated by further molecular techniques and included in diagnostic panels for reproductive viruses.