Pertussis serodiagnosis in Belgium from 1990 to 2009.

Diagnosis of pertussis by culture and PCR is most sensitive when performed on nasopharyngeal specimens collected <2 weeks and <3 weeks, respectively, after the onset of clinical disease. Conversely, serological testing allows the diagnosis of patients (mostly adults) with less typical whooping cough symptoms, for whom clinical samples are often collected at later time points. Here, we report on a 20-year serodiagnostic survey of pertussis in Belgium from 1990 to 2009.

No H- and L-type cases in Belgium in cattle diagnosed with bovine spongiform encephalopathy (1999-2008) aging seven years and older.

Background: The bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) epidemic presented homogeneity of the phenotype. This classical BSE (called C-type) was probably due to the contamination of the food chain by a single prion strain. However, due to the active surveillance and better techniques, two rare variants of BSE have been recently reported in different continents without a clear correlation to the BSE epidemic.