Seroprevalence of Bovine Herpesvirus Type 1 Among the Cattle Population in Iran: A Systematic Review and...

Bovine herpesvirus type 1 (BHV-1) is the causative agent of several clinical manifestations, including infectious bovine rhinotracheitis, infectious pustular vulvovaginitis/balanoposthitis, conjunctivitis, encephalitis, abortion, infertility, mastitis, enteritis, dermatitis, and the systemic form of the infection in newborn calves. Although many investigations regarding the prevalence of BHV-1 infection in cattle in Iran have been conducted, until now there has been a lack of comprehensive information on the BHV-1 status in Iran. We aimed to present the seroprevalence of BHV-1 in the cattle population in Iran based on a systematic review and meta-analysis study and also to give useful outputs in formulating the infection-control strategies. The meta-analysis study was conducted using national and international databases to find articles which evaluated BHV-1 seroprevalence by antibody-capture enzyme linked immono sorbert assay (ELISA) in cattle in Iran by searching terms including Bovine herpesvirus type 1, cow, cattle, bovine, Iran, epidemiology, and prevalence alone or in combination in both English and Farsi languages. After reviewing 124 published documents, a total of 25 studies from 20 documents were eligible to be included in this meta-analysis study. The analysis was performed using the Comprehensive Meta-Analysis software, VERSION 3. The total seroprevalence of BHV-1 in apparently healthy cattle at the animal and herd levels based on the ELISA test was 40.2% (95% CI, 32.3%, 48.6%) and 75.5% (95% CI, 63.9%, 84.2%), respectively. A well-defined control strategy for preventing and controlling BHV-1 infection in Iran should be based on further studies on BHV-1 epidemiology, control of animal and semen importation, the use of marker vaccines, and planned biosecurity measures to control the epidemiological risk of infection due to the presence of BHV-1 latent carriers.