Though the essence of these foci has not been elucidated in this study, the typical foci is reminiscent of DNA damage response (DDR) like the canonical γ-H2AX foci which is generally developed in response to DNA damage induced by irradiation because BoHV-1 productive infection in MDBK cells induced DNA damage [68], and HMGB1 plays essential roles in DNA damage repair. Here, HMGB1 is linked to infection.