Equine herpesvirus 1 infection of horses: studies on the experimentally induced neurologic disease.

Experimental infection with equine herpesvirus 1 (rhinopneumonitis) resulted in neurologic disease in 8 of 15 inoculated horses. Nonpregnant animals did not develop clinical disease, and microscopic examination of tissues revealed no changes. In all mares between 3 and 9 months of gestation, a neurologic syndrome appeared 6 to 8 days after inoculation. Mares inoculated when 10 months pregnant did not develop neurologic disorders, but several aborted. The histopathologic change common to both sequelae was vasculitis, involving smaller arteries and veins. Although blood vessel changes were detected in endometrium of all pregnant mares, vascular changes were present in the central nervous system only in mares having neurologic disease. Concomitant degeneration of nervous tissue occurred within the central nervous system and, in many sites, anatomic and temporal relationships of vasculitis and nervous tissue degeneration suggested a cause-effect relationship. This theory was strengthened by the lack of usual histopathologic indications of encephalomyelitis. In cerebrospinal fluid from affected mares, there was an increase in protein but not pleocytosis.