Epidemiology of Norwalk-like virus infections in cattle in The Netherlands.

"Norwalk-like viruses" (NLVs) are the most common cause of acute non-bacterial gastroenteritis in humans. Cattle may be a reservoir of NLVs although never bovine NLVs have been found in humans. To gain more insight into the epidemiology of NLV, infections in cattle in The Netherlands were studied.

Cluster of cases of acute hepatitis associated with hepatitis E virus infection acquired in the Netherlands.

Increasing evidence suggests that hepatitis E virus (HEV) infection may occur in developed countries and that swine may act as a reservoir. We report a cluster of 2 confirmed cases and 1 presumptive case of hepatitis associated with HEV. The typed strain from 1 case was related to HEV strains found in North America and Europe, and it was also related to a cluster of swine HEV strains found in The Netherlands.

A novel approach for the construction of a Campylobacter mutant library.

Given the lack of functional transposons for use in Campylobacter spp., an alternative method of insertional mutagenesis using natural transformation was developed. High efficiencies of transformation were only obtained with species-specific DNA.