Isolation and characterization of bovine alphaherpesvirus 2 strain from an outbreak of bovine herpetic mammillitis in a dairy farm

Background Bovine alphaherpesvirus type 2 (BoHV-2) belongs to family Herpesviridae, subfamily Alphaherpesviridae and can cause two distinct, well-defined conditions: a generalized benign skin infection that somewhat mimics lumpy skin disease (LSD), referred to as Pseudo-Lumpy Skin Disease (PSLD) and a localized ulcerative mammillitis, referred to as Bovine Herpetic Mammillitis (BHM). BHM is a localized form of BoHV-2 infection that causes erosive-ulcerative self-limiting lesions on breast and nipples. BHM is chiefly a disease of lactating dairy cows and has been described sporadically in several countries. In this study we describe an outbreak of bovine herpetic mammillitis caused by BoHV-2 occurred in a dairy farm in Southern Italy. Clinical signs were observed in 26/59 lactating cows with the age ranging between 2 and 6 years. The affected animals were afebrile, showed lesions on the skin of nipples, breast and ventral surface of the abdomen, near the mammary veins and spontaneously recovered within 2 months. Results BoHV-2 DNA was detected in the crust samples by pan-herpes PCR and real-time quantitative PCR. The virus was isolated on bovine kidney cells and was characterised by deep sequencing technologies. The nucleotide identity to BoHV-2 of the strain ITA/2018/468 retrieved in this study ranged from 98.83 to 100%. Phylogenetic analyses based on three full-length gene (glycoprotein B, thymidine kinase and glycoprotein G) sequences confirmed the close relatedness of the strain ITA/2018/468 to BoHV-2 sequences. Conclusions The report represents a significant outbreak of BHM in a dairy farm 50 years after the last description in Italy. However, outbreaks of PLSD have been described in Europe recently, indicating that the virus is present in European territories. Improving the diagnostic algorithms and enacting specific surveillance plans could be useful to understand better the epidemiological and pathogenetic patterns of BoHV-2 infection in livestock animals, and to develop, eventually, effective prophylaxis plans.