Publications by authors named "Eleni Chondrokouki"

Limited data exist on the factors affecting feline rabies vaccination outcomes during primary immunization. This study aimed to assess if specific factors (signalment, vaccination count, vaccine brand, and time since last vaccination) correlated with meeting global antibody titer standards and absolute titers in young cats given monovalent inactivated rabies vaccines. Analyzing a dataset from cats tested before their first annual booster using the FAVN test, logistic and linear regression models were applied.

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Lumpy skin disease virus (LSDV) has a complex epidemiology involving multiple strains, recombination, and vaccination. Its DNA genome provides limited genetic variation to trace outbreaks in space and time. Sequencing of LSDV whole genomes has also been patchy at global and regional scales.

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Article Synopsis
  • African swine fever (ASF) is a serious viral disease impacting pigs globally, with significant outbreaks occurring in Europe since 2014, affecting 14 countries, including Italy and North Macedonia in 2022.
  • To understand the ASF virus's spread, researchers sequenced 382 virus isolates from 2007 to 2022, using targeted PCR techniques to analyze specific genetic regions.
  • The results revealed 24 distinct ASF virus groups in Europe and identified unique mutations linking recent outbreaks in North Macedonia to neighboring countries, providing insights for improved genotyping and monitoring of the disease.
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Lumpy skin disease (LSD) is a transboundary disease of economic importance affecting cattle and buffaloes. In South-Eastern Europe, immunization of cattle with homologous live attenuated vaccines for LSD control has prevented outbreaks since 2017, but has been associated with adverse reactions resembling disease symptoms. Thus, a diagnostic method suitable for disease surveillance in farms during vaccination campaigns with Neethling (Onderstepoort) and SIS type (Lumpyvax) live attenuated LSDV vaccines in Europe should be able to detect the wild type (WT) LSDV in animals with adverse reactions to the vaccines and samples with potentially high titers of the vaccine LSDV.

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Although juvenile red foxes (Vulpes vulpes) are considered a single age group, essential for monitoring the effectiveness of the oral rabies vaccination (ORV), there appear to be significant differences among age subgroups. Herein, a subset of 335 foxes aged 0-1 year that had not consumed bait in previous campaign were collected for monitoring the effectiveness of the first seven ORV campaigns in Greece, carried out from 2013 to 2017. These juveniles were additionally assigned to three individual 4-month age groups, according to the exact date on which they were killed.

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The objective of the present study was to access the titres and duration of maternally derived neutralizing antibodies against lumpy skin disease virus (LSDV) in calves born to immunized dairy cows. The study was conducted in a Greek farm of 200 Holstein cows which were immunized with a homologous Neethling strain-based attenuated vaccine. Composite colostrum samples were obtained from 18 selected cows at the day of calving.

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Following the last animal rabies outbreak in Greece in 2012, Oral Rabies Vaccination (ORV) campaigns of red foxes (Vulpes vulpes) were conducted in order to halt the spread of the disease, as widely and effectively have also been implemented in other countries. The present study aims to report the main outcomes following the first Greek ORV campaigns during autumn 2013, 2014, 2015 and spring 2016, to assess their effectiveness and to investigate factors potentially related to their success. Blood samples, mandible bones and teeth, derived by 452 foxes, were tested for rabies antibody titration, animal age determination and tetracycline (TTC) detection.

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There is currently limited information on the factors influencing the outcome of rabies vaccination in dogs based on the primary immunization schedule. The objective of this study was to investigate whether selected variables (signalment, number of vaccinations, vaccine brand and multivalence, and time interval between the most recent vaccination and blood sampling) were associated with the achievement of an acceptable titer threshold (based on international standards) and with absolute antibody titers in young dogs vaccinated with commercially available vaccines. Serologic data from 662 dogs tested prior to their first annual booster for rabies were retrospectively reviewed.

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Lumpy skin disease (LSD) is a transboundary viral disease of cattle with severe economic impact. Immunization of cattle with homologous live attenuated vaccines poses a number of diagnostic problems, as it has been associated with adverse reactions resembling disease symptoms. The latter hampers clinical diagnosis and poses challenges in virus identification.

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Lumpy skin disease virus (LSDV) causes an economically important disease in cattle. Here, we report the complete genome sequence of the first LSDV isolate identified in mainland Europe. LSDV isolate Evros/GR/15 was isolated from the first cases reported on 18 August 2015 in the Evros region, Greece.

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The objective of this study is to present epizootiological data from the lumpy skin disease (LSD) outbreaks in Greece during 2015-16, following the implementation of emergency vaccination and total stamping-out, along with laboratory data regarding the genetic differentiation between field isolates and live attenuated vaccine virus strains. Descriptive geographical chronology analysis was conducted to present the progressive shift of the outbreaks westwards, and at the same time, the absence of further outbreaks in previously affected regional units where high vaccination coverage was achieved. Isolation and molecular characterization of LSDV from the first recorded case in Greece (Evros/GR/15 isolate) was performed.

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