Evaluación de la aplicación de un ensayo de PCR para la detección de material genético de Herpesvirus canino tipo 1 en muestras clínicas de caninos.

Abstract

Canid Alphaherpesvirus 1 (CaVH-1), before called Canine herpesvirus type 1 (CHV-1), is of great importance, since it is the cause of diseases in dogs, generating mortality in puppies under three weeks and it affects the development of the reproductive and respiratory system in adult dogs as well as latency states. In the present investigation, the aim was to generate reliable information on the presence of CaHV-1 in dogs from the city of Cuenca, for the first time, based on the search (or research) for virus detection by molecular biology with a conventional PCR assay validated by a process control in the molecular biology laboratory of the Faculty of Agricultural Science of the University of Cuenca. For this, 202 samples of 101 patients of different age, race, and sex have been collected, on veterinary clinics as well as, shelters and canine breeding places in the city of Cuenca. The samples were of nasal and genital swabs of dogs showing signs suggestive of the disease and in some cases of death, necropsies were performed to samples trigeminal nerve ganglia and kidney. The results showed 181 valid samples (89,60%) of the 202 samples for the process control, and of these 9 (4,97%) positive to the virus, having 3,31% in samples of swabs and 1,66% in tissue. With the present investigation as a base, it is suggested to deepen the study of the virus as its epidemiology, genotyping among other topics.