Clearance of Maedi-visna infection in a longitudinal study of naturally infected rams is associated with homozygosity for the TMEM154 resistance allele

Jones, Scott; McKay, Heather; Eden, Laura; Bollard, Nicola; Dunham, Stephen; Davies, Peers; Tarlinton, Rachael

Abstract

Maedi-visna (MV) is a lentiviral disease of sheep responsible for severe production losses in affected flocks. There are no vaccination or treatment options with control reliant on test and cull strategies. The most common diagnostic methods used at present are combination ELISAs for Gag and Env proteins with virus variability making PCR diagnostics still largely an experimental tool. To assess variability in viral loads and diagnostic tests results, serology, DNA and RNA viral loads were measured in the blood of 12 naturally infected rams repeatedly blood sampled over 16months. Six animals tested negative in one or more tests at one or more time points and would have been missed on screening programmes reliant on one test method or a single time point. In addition the one animal homozygous for the 'K' allele of the TMEM154 E35K SNP maintained very low viral loads in all assays and apparently cleared infection to below detectable limits at the final time point it was sampled. This adds crucial data to the strong epidemiological evidence that this locus represents a genuine resistance marker for MV infection and is a strong candidate for selective breeding of sheep for resistance to disease.

Citation

Jones, S., McKay, H., Eden, L., Bollard, N., Dunham, S., Davies, P., & Tarlinton, R. (2022). Clearance of Maedi-visna infection in a longitudinal study of naturally infected rams is associated with homozygosity for the TMEM154 resistance allele. Journal of Medical Microbiology, 71(2), Article 001506. https://doi.org/10.1099/jmm.0.001506

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Jan 5, 2022
• Online Publication Date: Feb 10, 2022
• Publication Date: Feb 10, 2022
• Deposit Date: Jan 7, 2022
• Publicly Available Date: Jan 7, 2022
• Journal: Journal of Medical Microbiology
• Print ISSN: 0022-2615
• Electronic ISSN: 1473-5644
• Publisher: Microbiology Society
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 71
• Issue: 2
• Article Number: 001506
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1099/jmm.0.001506
• Keywords: Microbiology (medical); General Medicine; Microbiology
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/7171310
• Publisher URL: https://www.microbiologyresearch.org/content/journal/jmm/10.1099/jmm.0.001506