Code
01CD03225
Duration
04 June 2025 → 03 October 2025
Funding
Regional and community funding: Special Research Fund
Promotor
Fellow
Research disciplines
-
Agricultural and food sciences
- Veterinary anatomy, morphology and (clinical) pathology
- Veterinary microbiology
- Veterinary physiology, pathophysiology and biochemistry
Keywords
genome sequence
streptolysin S (SLS)
microbiome
EHV-4
EHV-1
pathogenesis
vaginal explant
Streptococcus zooepidemicus (SEZ)
EHV-3
blood monocyte
respiratory explant
Project description
Recently, EHV-1 21P40 caused a huge neurological outbreak in horses. This strain was genetically very similar to the abortigenic 97P70 strain. We have characterized the differences in replication kinetics of these two strains in respiratory explants and monocytes. Next, we demonstrated the negative effect of streptolysin S of the microbiome bacterium Streptococcus zooepidemicus on the morphology of the epithelium of nasal and vaginal explants and the positive effect on the replication kinetics of EHV1 21P40, EHV3 and EHV4. At present, we are assessing the effect of ORF30 and 65 SNPs (genetic differences between 21P40 and 97P70) on EHV-1 replication.