Deoxyribonucleic acid fingerprinting analyses with 4 restriction endonucleases (EcoRI, BamHI, BglII, and HindIII) and serotest results have definitively indicated that 5 herpesviruses isolated from 1974 to 1986 from aborted bovine fetuses and from bovine tissues and nasal secretions were abortigenic subtypes of equine herpesvirus type 1 (EHV-1). The herpesviruses, designated BH1247, 3M20-3, G118, H1753, and 9BSV4, were neutralized by EHV-1-specific antiserum and could be propagated in cultures of either bovine or equine cells. Only minor differences in restriction endonuclease patterns were detected from the pattern of an Army 183 isolate of EHV-1 subtype 1 that had been passaged only in equine cells and from that of an attenuated EHV-1 subtype 1 (RQ) strain that had been passaged several hundred times in non-equine cells. The individual differences in the restriction endonuclease fragments of the 5 bovine isolates and the Army 183 and RQ strains mainly were attributable to alterations in the terminally repeated and the unique short nucleotide sequences of the EHV-1 genomes, which are known to be hot spots for deletions and tandem repeats. The BamHI restriction endonuclease pattern of the 1977 bovine isolate H1753 was identical to that of EHV-1 subtype-1 strains responsible for most of the virus abortions in vaccinated horses since 1981. Abortigenic EHV-1 strains have the ability to infect cattle and cause disease under natural conditions.