Detection of Chlamydophila caviae and Streptococcus equi subsp. zooepidemicus in horses with signs of rhinitis and conjunctivitis.

At a stud farm of Trakehner horses, all 33 foals of a birth cohort developed conjunctivitis and serous to muco-purulent rhinitis, and 7 older horses showed recurrent signs of conjunctivitis. Examination of nasal and conjunctival swabs by bacterial and cell culture, as well as real-time PCR, ArrayTube microarray analysis and DNA sequencing led to the identification of Chlamydophila (C.) caviae (first description in horses) and Streptococcus (S.

Cowpox infection transmitted from a domestic cat.

A 21-year-old immunocompetent woman developed a cowpox infec-tion,while working as a veterinarian's assistant in a rural area. She had never received vaccinia immunization and came in contact with a fatally-infected house cat. Under symptomatic treatment, the infection remained localized to one cheek and cleared over 3 weeks with substantial dermal-subcutaneous tissue destruction.

Rapid testing leads to the underestimation of the scrapie prevalence in an affected sheep and goat flock.

To obtain a more detailed understanding of the prevalence of classical scrapie infections in a heavily affected German sheep flock (composed of 603 sheep and 6 goats), we analysed 169 sheep and 6 goats that carried the genotypes susceptible to the disease and that were therefore culled following discovery of the index case. The initial tests were performed using the Biorad TeSeE ELISA and reactive results were verified by official confirmatory methods (OIE-immunoblot and/or immunohistochemistry (IHC)) to demonstrate the deposition of scrapie-associated PrP(Sc) in the brain stem (obex). This approach led to the discovery of 40 additional subclinically scrapie-infected sheep.