Equine herpesvirus

Last updated March 30, 2019

Equine herpesvirus is a group of viruses of the family Herpesviridae that infect horses.

A virus is a small infectious agent that replicates only inside the living cells of an organism. Viruses can infect all types of life forms, from animals and plants to microorganisms, including bacteria and archaea.

Herpesviridae is a large family of DNA viruses that cause infections and certain diseases in animals, including humans. The members of this family are also known as herpesviruses. The family name is derived from the Greek word herpein, referring to spreading cutaneous lesions, usually involving blisters, seen in flares of herpes simplex 1, herpes simplex 2 and herpes zoster (shingles). In 1971, the International Committee on the Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV) established Herpesvirus as a genus with 23 viruses among four groups. Latent, recurring infections are typical of this group of viruses, though the family name does not refer to latency. Herpesviridae can cause latent or lytic infections.

The horse is one of two extant subspecies of Equus ferus. It is an odd-toed ungulate mammal belonging to the taxonomic family Equidae. The horse has evolved over the past 45 to 55 million years from a small multi-toed creature, Eohippus, into the large, single-toed animal of today. Humans began domesticating horses around 4000 BC, and their domestication is believed to have been widespread by 3000 BC. Horses in the subspecies caballus are domesticated, although some domesticated populations live in the wild as feral horses. These feral populations are not true wild horses, as this term is used to describe horses that have never been domesticated, such as the endangered Przewalski's horse, a separate subspecies, and the only remaining true wild horse. There is an extensive, specialized vocabulary used to describe equine-related concepts, covering everything from anatomy to life stages, size, colors, markings, breeds, locomotion, and behavior.

Equine herpesvirus 1 of the subfamily Alphaherpesvirinae and genus Varicellovirus
Equine herpesvirus 2 of the subfamily Gammaherpesvirinae and genus Rhadinovirus
Equine herpesvirus 3 of the subfamily Alphaherpesvirinae and genus Varicellovirus
Equine herpesvirus 4 of the subfamily Alphaherpesvirinae and genus Varicellovirus
Equine herpesvirus 5 of the subfamily Gammaherpesvirinae and genus Rhadinovirus
Equine herpesvirus 6 of the subfamily Alphaherpesvirinae and genus Varicellovirus
Equine herpesvirus 7 of the subfamily Gammaherpesvirinae and genus Not assigned
Equine herpesvirus 8 of the subfamily Alphaherpesvirinae and genus Varicellovirus
Equine herpesvirus 9 of the subfamily Alphaherpesvirinae and genus Varicellovirus

Varicellovirus (var′i-sel′ō-vi′rŭs) is a genus of viruses belonging to subfamily Alphaherpesvirinae, a member of family Herpesviridae. Humans and mammals serve as natural hosts. There are currently 17 species in this genus including the type species Human alphaherpesvirus 3 also known as Varicella zoster virus (VZV). Diseases associated with this genus include: HHV-3—chickenpox (varicella) and shingles; BoHV-1—infectious bovine rhinotracheitis/infectious pustular vulvovaginitis (IPV); SuHV-1 —Aujesky's disease characterized by central nervous system signs, high mortality rates in young animals, and respiratory illness in older pigs.

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