Granulomatous meningoencephalitis and blindness associated with Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex infection in a senile female chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes).

A 40-year old female chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes) developed hyporexia, weight loss, followed by progressive and complete blindness. Tomography demonstrated an intracranial mass in the rostroventral brain involving the optic chiasm, with a presumptive diagnosis of neoplasm. However, histopathology revealed a granulomatous meningoencephalitis, and tissue samples tested positive for Mycobacterium tuberculosis.

Evaluation of three different genomic regions for detection of bovine leukemia virus by real-time PCR.

Bovine leukemia virus (BLV) is an oncogenic member of the genus Deltaretrovirus. BLV infects cattle worldwide and is responsible for significant economic losses. The objective of this study was to validate real-time quantitative PCR (qPCR) for the detection of BLV.

qPCR assay for the detection of pseudocowpox virus.

Pseudocowpox is a zoonosis caused by pseudocowpox virus (PCPV), which mainly affects cows but can be an occupational disease of humans. The aim of the study was to validate a quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) assay for the detection of PCPV. The assay was able to detect up to 1000 copies of PCPV per µL in field samples, with a sensitivity of 80% and a specificity of 100%.

A molecular survey using a validated real-time PCR assay finds no evidence of bovine alphaherpesvirus 2 in samples from animals with suspected vesicular disease in Brazil between 2014 and 2017.

Bovine alphaherpesvirus 2 (BoHV-2) is the etiologic agent of bovine mammillitis (BM) and pseudo-lumpy skin disease. BM is also important because its clinical presentation can be confused with foot-and-mouth disease (FMD), making it necessary to establish differential diagnoses and perform additional laboratory tests. The objective of this work was to use a validated real-time PCR assay to test for the presence of BoHV-2 in samples from cattle and buffalo with suspected vesicular disease in Brazil.

Quantification of ovine herpesvirus 2 by digital PCR in an outbreak of malignant catarrhal fever.

Infection with ovine gammaherpesvirus 2 (OvHV-2) is generally asymptomatic in sheep; however, when it crosses the species barrier, it causes malignant catarrhal fever (MCF) in cattle. In the present study, we developed a real-time PCR assay and a droplet digital PCR assay and use both methods to study an outbreak caused by OvHV-2. Both PCR methods showed high sensitivity and specificity and were able to detect low copy numbers of OvHV-2 in sheep and cattle.