In the present study, the influence of the infection with equine herpesvirus type 1 (non-neuropathogenic and neuropathogenic strains of EHV-1) on the morphology and distribution of mitochondrial network in equine dermal cell line was investigated. Our results indicate that EHV-1-infection caused changes in the mitochondrial morphology manifested mostly by fission and reactive oxygen species generation.
Background: Equine sarcoids are the most common neoplasms in horses. Bovine papilloma- virus type 1 (BPV-1) is the main viral type identified in equine sarcoids in Europe.
Objective: The aim of the present study was to genetically evaluate BPV types based on DNA analyses of the CDS of the L1 gene. The presence of BPV DNA was confirmed by Degenerate Oligonucleotide-Primed Polymerase Chain Reaction (DOP PCR) with FAP59/FAP64 consensus primers.
Results: The DNA was detected in 21/40 (52.5%) of clinically diagnosed sarcoids. More than half of 14 isolates (66.7%) shared 100% homology with BPV-1 Deltapapillomavirus 4 isolate 09 asi UK (Acc. No. MF384289) and 99% nucleotide identity with BPV-1 isolate EqSarc1 (Acc. No. JX678969). A comparison with BPV-1 isolate EqSarc1 revealed one silent mutation in C5827T which did not change the aminoacid codon. The remaining 6 isolates (28.6%) shared 100% nucleotide identity with the BPV-1 (Acc. No. X02346) “wild type” isolate, and 1 isolate (4.8%) demonstrated 99% nucleotide identity with BPV-2 (Acc. No. M20219).
Conclusions: Variants of BPV-1 isolate EqSarc1 (Acc. No. JX678969) constitute the most prevalent type of BPV-1 in Polish horses.
Early embryonic death (EED) is one of the causes of infertility in the mare. We compared endometrial environment in 9 mares with EED and 13 mares in diestrus phase. Cotton swab (CS), cytobrush (CB) and uterine biopsy (B) samples were obtained for the cytological, bacteriological and histopathological examinations. In the first step we compared CS and CB methods to biopsy as a reference method, as B revealed the highest number of positive results in cytological and bacteriological examinations in both groups. In turn, we also compared cytological, bacteri- ological and histopathological findings between EED and control animals using the B sampling. Although the differences between these groups were not statistically significant (p≥0.05), there was a tendency to a higher prevalence of subclinical endometritis in the control group, than in the EED group (62% vs 22%). In general, positive bacteriological results were similar in both groups (62% vs 55%), whereas positive cytological results were higher in the control group (62% vs 22%; p≥0.05). In histopathological examination in EED mares endometrial degeneration was better expressed (all mares were with grades IIB and III on the Kenney-Doig scale); however, the differences between both groups were not statistically significant (p≥0.05). We could not confirm a clear difference in uterine environment between the two groups. Moreover, the uterine biopsy seemed to be the most reasonable sampling method for diagnosis of endometrial state.