Diphenyl diselenide and cidofovir present anti-viral activity against Bovine Alphaherpesvirus 2 in vitro and in a sheep model

Abstract Bovine alphaherpesvirus 2 (BoHV-2) - the agent of bovine herpetic mamillitis (BHM) – is related to Human alphaherpesviruses 1 and 2 (HHV-1, HHV-2) and, as such, has been proposed as a model for vaccine and drug testing. We herein investigated the anti-viral activity in vitro against BoHV-2 of three anti-herpetic drugs: Cidofovir (CDV), Fanciclovir (FAM), Foscarnet (PFA), and diphenyl disselenide (Ph2Se2), a compound that showed activity against HHV-2. Plaque reduction assays (PRA) revealed a significant reduction in viral plaques (p