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Discussion on Research Summary: EHV-9 and Polar Bears
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Moderator:
DrO
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Posted on Monday, Nov 17, 2008 - 7:39 am:
More on an interesting summary than something useful, unless you keep polar bears. EHV-9 is currently not associated with disease in horses though experimentally produces transient fever, but the bears have got to watch out. EHV-9 has also reportedly caused neurological disease in marmosets, a primitive primate.
DrO
Emerg Infect Dis. 2008 Oct;14(10):1616-9.
New hosts for equine herpesvirus 9.
Schrenzel MD, Tucker TA, Donovan TA, Busch MD, Wise AG, Maes RK, Kiupel M.
Zoological Society of San Diego, Wildlife Disease Laboratories, Escondido, California 92027, USA. mschrenzel@sandiegozoo.org
Equine herpesvirus 9 was detected in a polar bear with progressive encephalitis; the source was traced to 2 members of a potential equid reservoir species, Grevy's zebras. The virus was also found in an aborted Persian onager. Thus, the natural host range is extended to 6 species in 3 mammalian orders.
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Member:
ajudson1
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Posted on Monday, Nov 17, 2008 - 7:59 am:
What?! You don't keep polar bears? 
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Member:
erika
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Posted on Monday, Nov 17, 2008 - 8:39 am:
Is that the same virus that just killed the elephants at Houston Zoo? (Six in the last few years!)
I'm keeping the horses away from the rest of the circus.
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Member:
ekaufman
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Posted on Monday, Nov 17, 2008 - 8:08 pm:
Hi Erika,
Likely not "Molecular Virologists have ... detected five or six different species of this particular type of herpesvirus (called Probosciviruses) in elephants, four of which EEHV1A, EEHV1B, EEHV2, EEHV3 and EEHV4 have all caused fatal disease. Current evidence has confirmed that EEHV2 and EEHV3 are native to African elephants where they cause the pulmonary nodules. EEHV5 is likely native to and benign in Asian elephants and might potentially provide protection against the others. EEHV1A has been found in skin nodules of African elephants in the US, but it is not yet clear whether the natural hosts are African or Asian elephants."
This site has not attribution, but offers the following for sources: Sources, among others; Gary S. Hayward, Ph D. Johns Hopkins School of Medicine
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