Vol. 11, Special Issue 2 (2022)

Author(s):
D Rani Prameela, M Balumahendiran and D Ranjith

Abstract:
Malignant catarrhal fever is a fatal herpes viral infection of domestic and wild ruminants. Potential survival of the virus in the reservoir hosts including sheep, goat and wild beasts and association of various farm animals in a single area is responsible for occurrence in cross bred dairy cows and calves. During this study period fatal cases of sheep associated Malignant Catarrhal fever in calves were recorded from the state of Andhra Pradesh. Total of 19 calves of different age groups were shown fatal clinical signs of pyrexia, conjunctivitis, purulent nasal and lachrymal discharges, redness of muzzle with anorexia. Peripheral blood samples were collected from all the calves and further processed for separation of buffy coat layer. The viral DNA was extracted from peripheral blood leukocytes and subjected to PCR targeting the OIE approved tegument gene of OVH-2. Out of 19 blood samples screened, 12 samples were found positive by PCR amplifying 422bp of the tegument gene and confirmed the presence of OVH2 infection in young calves.