Surveillance of the equine infectious anemia virus in Eastern and Central Saudi Arabia during 2014-2016

Vet World Vol.12 May-2019 Article-15

Research Article

Veterinary World, 12(5): 719-723

https://doi.org/10.14202/vetworld.2019.719-723

Abdulmohsen Abdullah Alnaeem¹ and Maged Gomaa Hemida^2,3

1. Department of Clinical Studies, College of Veterinary Medicine King Faisal University, Saudi Arabia.
2. Department of Microbiology and Parasitology, College of Veterinary Medicine, King Faisal University, Saudi Arabia.
3. Department of Virology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Kafrelsheikh University, Egypt.

Background and Aim: This study aimed to perform molecular and serological surveillance among some horse populations in Eastern and Central Saudi Arabia.

Materials and Methods: Sera and whole blood were collected from 361 horses and 19 donkeys from the eastern and central regions of Saudi Arabia during January 2014-December 2016. Sera were tested by the commercial EIAV enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay kits. Moreover, the collected blood samples were tested by the commercial real-time polymerase chain reaction kits.

Results: Our serological surveillance revealed the absence of any antibodies against EIAV in the tested animals. Similar results were reported for the tested horses' plasma. This study confirms the absence of EIAV in horses and donkeys from Eastern and Central Saudi Arabia during the tenure of the current study. However, careful monitoring of the EIAV is highly recommended to avoid the emergence of such a virus in the horse population in Saudi Arabia.

Conclusion: To the best of our knowledge, this is the first EIAV surveillance conducted not only in Saudi Arabia but also in the Gulf area. This study confirms the absence of EIAV in the tested equine population in the eastern and central regions of Saudi Arabia during 2014-2016. Keywords: enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, equine infectious anemia virus, real-time polymerase chain reaction, Saudi Arabia.

Keywords: enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, equine infectious anemia virus, real-time polymerase chain reaction, Saudi Arabia.

How to cite this article: Alnaeem AA, Hemida MG (2019) Surveillance of the equine infectious anemia virus in Eastern and Central Saudi Arabia during 2014-2016, Veterinary World, 12(5): 719-723.

Received: 06-12-2018 Accepted: 02-04-2019 Published online: 29-05-2019

Corresponding author: Maged Gomaa Hemida E-mail: mhemida@kfu.edu.sa

DOI: 10.14202/vetworld.2019.719-723

Copyright: Alnaeem and Hemida, et al. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http:// creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.