Deducing Evolutionary Divergence of EEHV in Free Ranging Elephants in Western Ghats of India

Asian Elephants (Elephas maximus), an endangered species prone to highly lethal haemorrhagic disease caused by elephant endotheliotropic herpes virus (EEHV) which is a major threat to Asian elephant husbandry. Clinical symptoms include facial edema and cyanosis of tongue which may progress to systemic viremia resulting in haemorrhaging of all internal organs and finally death. This infection is commonly seen in young elephants (1 to 8 years old) and death may occur in hours or days and the mortality rate is >80%. Sequencing of certain regions of EEHV genome of lethal samples indicated a prominent variation among them which prompted us to attempt the whole genome sequencing of multiple lethal samples. 21 pairs of primers were designed in such a fashion that the amplicons of viral genome had a minimum of 1 kb overlap. The amplification patterns differed for the samples which might be due to infection caused by different EEHV strains or multiple infections. The amplicons were sequenced and analysed. Data shows short missing fragments from many regions which may be due to sequence variations in different strains. New primers were designed for missing fragments and sequencing again to capture the complete genome. The current study aims to detect the complete genome of different EEHV strains to understand its pathogenicity, ecology and host immune reactions for the future conservation of magnificent Elephant species.