Equine Infectious Anemia Virus

EIAV is a lentivirus, related to HIV, responsible in horses for equine infectious anemia, associated in 1904 with a "filterable agent" (Cook et al; 2013). EIA (Equine Infectious Anemia) is one of the 11 equine diseases listed by the WOAH, the World Organization for Animal Health. As such, this disease is regulated and is the subject of drastic sanitary measures around the world. Transmitted during blood exchanges via non-sterile veterinary care or tabanid bites, EIAV is widely present in the world.

For several decades and more than 20 years before the discovery of HIV retrovirus responsible for AIDS in humans, work on EIAV has accumulated data on the immunological control of replication of lentivirus and infection and on the nature and the role of antigenic and genetic variation on persistence and pathogenesis (for review  Cook et al; 2013).

The disease is characterized by the recurrence of clinical episodes associating hyperthermia, thrombocytopenia and viremia, and correlated with the emergence of new viral species (Leroux et al., 1997, Cook et al; 2013)

In addition to febrile peaks and thrombocytopenia, our team showed that EIAV infection was associated with the development of interstitial lung disease associated with inflammation of the bronchioles and alveolar walls, destruction of the bronchiolar epithelium, and of muscle cells ((Bolfa et al; 2013). We have demonstrated the EIAV infection of macrophages, endothelial cells, but also of bronchiolar and alveolar epithelial cells, enlarging the tropism of the previously described virus as restricted to monocytes / macrophages.

Our current work focuses on the genetic and biological characterization of circulating viruses in France and Europe and the interactions between the EIAV virus and lung cells.

Financial suppport from  IFCE