Bovine Alphaherpesvirus-1 (BoHV-1) Infection in Cattle: An Overview of Epidemiology, Role of Envelope Proteins in Disease and Control

In the past decade, substantial progress has been made towards the evaluation of various antigenic proteins from Bovine alphaherpesvirus-1 (BoHV-1) that can likely be targeted for designing of a suitable control strategy. Growing knowledge on the immunology of the host systems has been highly useful in the assessment of antigenic epitopes from the virus and its receptors on the host. BoHV-1 are enveloped double stranded DNA viruses studded with a dozen (gB, gC, gD, gE, gG, gI, gH, gK, gL, gM, UL49.5 and US9) of protein molecules on their surface where, ten are glycosylated and two are non-glycosylated. Each of these proteins are known to play a role in various functions such as cell attachment, entry, viral multiplication, cell to cell movement, packaging, egress of cell, retrograde and anterograde movement of virus. Knowledge about the properties and function of envelope proteins helps to explore the right protein for in-house vaccine or diagnostic test development. Overall, the review provides a comprehensive overview of the various aspects of Bovine alphaherpes infection including the epidemiology, envelope proteins involved in enforcement of infection, vaccines and methods of detection.