Incidence and isolation of bluetongue virus infection in cattle of the Santo Tomé Department, Corrientes Province, Argentina.

Sentinel herds were monitored for the detection of bluetongue (BT)-specific antibodies and virus over two periods, namely: June 1999 to August 2000 and September 2000 to April 2001. Herds were located in Santo Tomé (Herds 1 and 2) where BTV activity was known to occur. From June 1999 to August 2000, the cumulative incidence (CI) of bluetongue virus (BTV) infection was 0% and 35% in Herds 1 and 2, respectively.

[Blue tongue. Update on the agent and the disease].

Bluetongue (BT) is a viral disease of domestic and wild ruminants. It is particularly damaging in sheep, where up to half of infected animals may die, showing inflammation and hemorrhages of the mucous membranes of the mouth, nose, and intestines. In cattle and goats, BT rarely causes disease, however it can affect the animal's reproductive ability, so that losses are not easily estimated.

Evaluation of primary binding assays for presumptive serodiagnosis of swine brucellosis in Argentina.

An indirect enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (IELISA), a competitive ELISA (CELISA), and a fluorescence polarization assay (FPA) for the presumptive serological diagnosis of swine brucellosis were evaluated using two populations of swine sera: sera from brucellosis-free Canadian herds and sera from Argentina selected based on positive reactions in the buffered antigen plate agglutination test (BPAT) and the 2-mercaptoethanol (2-ME) test. In addition, sera from adult swine from which Brucella suis was isolated at least once for each farm of origin were evaluated. The IELISA, CELISA, and FPA specificity values were 99.