Prevalence of canine herpesvirus I (CHV-1) in German kennels

A survey of 1666 dogs was conducted to estimate the prevalence of dogs with canine herpes virus 1 (CHV-1) infection in 412 German kennels, using a serum neutralization assay. Of the 1637 utilisable sera, 18.81% were positive. The positive sera originated from 107 (25.97%) different kennels (25.97%). In serologically positive kennels in which all resident dogs were tested, 65.2% of the individuals had neutralizing antibodies against CHV-1. In addition, information on reproduction problems in individual dogs and kennels was obtained via a questionnaire. A positive correlation was observed between the prevalence of serologically positive individuals (23.6%) and kennels (29.4%) where acute neonatal CHV-1 infection had occurred. Retesting of serologically positive dogs after a period between 156 and 561 days revealed no decrease in neutralizing antibody titres.