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Higher prevalence of Borna disease virus infection in blood donors living near thoroughbred horse farms
Author(s) -
Takahashi Hirokazu,
Nakaya Takaaki,
Nakamura Yurie,
Asahi Sayumi,
Onishi Yoshiko,
Ikebuchi Kenji,
Takahashi Tsuneo A.,
Katoh Toshiaki,
Sekiguchi Sadayoshi,
Takazawa Masayuki,
Tanaka Hidetoshi,
Ikuta Kazuyoshi
Publication year - 1997
Publication title -
journal of medical virology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.782
H-Index - 121
eISSN - 1096-9071
pISSN - 0146-6615
DOI - 10.1002/(sici)1096-9071(199707)52:3<330::aid-jmv16>3.0.co;2-m
Subject(s) - virology , horse , virus , medicine , peripheral blood mononuclear cell , viral disease , biology , immunology , paleontology , biochemistry , in vitro
It is believed that Borna disease virus (BDV), an etiological agent of progressive polioencephalomyelitis in horses and sheep, is closely associated with psychiatric disorders in humans since the prevalence of BDV is higher in psychiatric patients than in blood donors. We investigated whether or not BDVs in humans are derived from infected domestic animals, by characterizing the BDVs in blood donors and horses derived from the same region of Hokkaido island, Japan. The seroprevalences (2.6 to 14.8%) of BDV were significantly higher in the blood donors from four regions where most horse farms are concentrated, compared with only 1% in the blood donors from Sapporo, the largest city in Hokkaido. BDV RNA was also detected in peripheral blood mononuclear cells from most of the seropositive horses and blood donors by nested reverse transcriptase‐polymerase chain reaction. These findings support that BDV may be horizontally transmitted, at least in part, from infected horses to humans. J. Med. Virol. 52:330–335, 1997. © 1997 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.