Neurological disease suspected to be caused by tick-borne encephalitis virus infection in 6 horses in Switzerland.

Background: Reports on acute tick-borne encephalitis virus (TBEV) infections with signs of neurologic disease in horses are limited.

Objectives: To describe the epidemiological, clinical, and laboratory findings of suspected acute TBEV infections in 6 horses.

Animals: Six horses originating from TBEV endemic regions of Switzerland were presented to equine hospitals with acute onset of neurologic disease between 2011 and 2019.

Non-discriminatory Exclusion Testing as a Tool for the Early Detection of Foot-and-Mouth Disease Incursions.

Endemic circulation of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) in Africa and Asia poses a continuous risk to countries in Europe, North America, and Oceania which are free from the disease. Introductions of the disease into a free region have dramatic economic impacts, especially if they are not detected at an early stage and controlled rapidly. However, farmers and veterinarians have an obvious disincentive to report clinical signs that are consistent with FMD, due to the severe consequences of raising an official suspicion, such as farm-level quarantine.

Virological and pathological findings in Bluetongue virus serotype 8 infected sheep.

Twenty-seven sheep of the four most common Swiss breeds and the English breed Poll Dorset were experimentally infected with a northern European field strain of bluetongue virus serotype 8 (BTV-8). Animals of all breeds developed clinical signs, viremia and pathological lesions, demonstrating that BTV-8 is fully capable of replicating and inducing bluetongue disease (BT) in the investigated sheep. Necropsy performed between 10 and 16 days post-infectionem (d.

Use of mapping and statistical modelling for the prediction of bluetongue occurrence in Switzerland based on vector biology.

Due to the spread of bluetongue (BT) in Europe in the last decade, a sentinel surveillance programme was initiated for Switzerland in 2003, consisting of serological sampling of sentinel cattle tested for BT virus antibodies, as well as entomological trapping of Culicoides midges from June until October. The aim of this study was to create a 'suitability map' of Switzerland, indicating areas of potential disease occurrence based on the biological parameters of Obsoletus Complex habitat. Data on Culicoides catches from insect traps together with various environmental parameters were recorded and analysed.

Canine distemper virus-induced depletion of uninfected lymphocytes is associated with apoptosis.

Canine distemper virus (CDV), a negative stranded RNA morbillivirus, causes a multisystemic disease in dogs, which is associated with a severe immune suppression. The aim of the study was to examine the influence of early CDV infection on leukocyte depletion, lymphopenia and virus-induced cell death in dogs infected with a virulent CDV strain. From 10 infected dogs, peripheral blood leukocytes were harvested periodically, phenotyped and analyzed for CDV antigen content and apoptosis using Annexin V-FITC and propidium iodide labeling.

Concurrent infections with vector-borne pathogens associated with fatal hemolytic anemia in a cattle herd in Switzerland.

Bovine anaplasmosis is a vector-borne disease that results in substantial economic losses in other parts of the world but so far not in northern Europe. In August 2002, a fatal disease outbreak was reported in a large dairy herd in the Swiss canton of Grisons. Diseased animals experienced fever, anorexia, agalactia, and depression.

[Import risk analysis in animal disease control].

At the Swiss Federal Veterinary Office risk analyses are conducted according to international standards. A risk analysis contains the elements risk management, risk assessment and risk communication. A risk assessment is based on risk profile, hazard identification and a pathway model.

Early DNA vaccination of puppies against canine distemper in the presence of maternally derived immunity.

Canine distemper (CD) is a disease in carnivores caused by CD virus (CDV), a member of the morbillivirus genus. It still is a threat to the carnivore and ferret population. The currently used modified attenuated live vaccines have several drawbacks of which lack of appropriate protection from severe infection is the most outstanding one.

Canine distemper, a re-emerging morbillivirus with complex neuropathogenic mechanisms.

Paramyxoviruses are responsible for a wide variety of diseases both in humans and in animals. Common to many paramyxoviruses is the fact that they can cause neurological symptoms in their final host. Newly discovered paramyxoviruses, such as the Hendra and Nipah viruses, show the same pattern of pathogenesis as that of the paramyxoviruses already known.