The study demonstrates that donkeys and mules are naturally infected with EAV and validates the use of ELISA for detecting EAV antibodies in these species.
May support ELISA for EAV serosurveillance in donkeys; leaves open prospective validation before clinical adoption.
A seroepidemiological survey of donkeys in South Africa (n = 4300) indicated a wide distribution and increasing prevalence of antibodies to equine arteritis virus (EAV). Donkey sera inhibited equine arteritis virus infection in virus neutralisation (VN) tests and in ELISA specifically bound to a recombinant antigen derived from the Bucyrus isolate of EAV. These results suggest that donkeys have been exposed to the same serotype of this virus as circulates among horses. A good correlation existed between EAV neutralising antibody titres and ELISA absorbance values (0.8631); the ELISA was sensitive and specific (99.2% and 80.3% respectively) for donkey sera when compared to the VN test and the recombinant ELISA antigen did not cross-react with sera positive for common African equine pathogens. VN+ ELISA+ donkeys were also found in Morocco and Zimbabwe and seropositive mules in both South Africa and Morocco. No seropositive zebra (n = 266) were detected from game reserves or zoos in 9 countries. The results confirm that in addition to horses and donkeys, mules are naturally infected with EAV.
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Pawęska et al. (1997) studied this question.
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