Analysis of the genetic diversity of ovine herpesvirus 2 in samples from livestock with malignant catarrhal fever.

In order to define better virus isolates from animals with malignant catarrhal fever (MCF), segments of three genes of ovine herpesvirus-2 were amplified from diagnostic samples representing MCF cases with a range of clinical presentations in cattle, including head and eye, alimentary and neurological. The variation within each gene segment was estimated by DNA sequencing, which confirmed that the newly-annotated Ov9.5 gene was significantly more polymorphic than either of the other loci tested (segments of ORF50 and ORF75), with alleles that differed at over 60% of nucleotide positions.

Reproduction of bovine neonatal pancytopenia (BNP) by feeding pooled colostrum reveals variable alloantibody damage to different haematopoietic lineages.

Bovine neonatal pancytopenia (BNP) is a recently described haemorrhagic disease of calves characterised by thrombocytopenia, leucopenia and bone marrow depletion. Feeding colostrum from cows that have previously produced a BNP affected calf has been shown to induce the disease in some calves, leading to the hypothesis that alloantibodies in colostrum from dams of affected calves mediate destruction of blood and bone marrow cells in the recipient calves. The aims of the current experimental study were first to confirm the role of colostrum-derived antibody in mediating the disease and second to investigate the haematopoietic cell lineages and maturation stages depleted by the causative antibodies.

Demonstration of early functional compromise of bone marrow derived hematopoietic progenitor cells during bovine neonatal pancytopenia through in vitro culture of bone marrow biopsies.

Background: Bovine neonatal pancytopenia (BNP) is a syndrome characterised by thrombocytopenia associated with marked bone marrow destruction in calves, widely reported since 2007 in several European countries and since 2011 in New Zealand. The disease is epidemiologically associated with the use of an inactivated bovine virus diarrhoea (BVD) vaccine and is currently considered to be caused by absorption of colostral antibody produced by some vaccinated cows ("BNP dams"). Alloantibodies capable of binding to the leukocyte surface have been detected in BNP dams and antibodies recognising bovine MHC class I and β-2-microglobulin have been detected in vaccinated cattle.

Factors associated with bovine neonatal pancytopenia (BNP) in calves: a case-control study.

Bovine neonatal pancytopenia (BNP; previously known as idiopathic haemorrhagic diathesis and commonly known as bleeding calf syndrome) is a novel haemorrhagic disease of young calves which has emerged in a number of European countries during recent years. Data were retrospectively collected during June to November 2010 for 56 case calves diagnosed with BNP between 17 March and 7 June of the same year. These were compared with 58 control calves randomly recruited from herds with no history of BNP.

Porcine teschovirus polioencephalomyelitis in western Canada.

Beginning in 2002, a small number of pig farms in western Canada began reporting 4-7-week-old pigs with bilateral hind-end paresis or paralysis. Low numbers of pigs were affected, some died, most had to be euthanized, and those that survived had reduced weight gains and neurological deficits. Necropsies revealed no gross lesions, but microscopic lesions consisted of a nonsuppurative polioencephalomyelitis, most severe in the brain stem and spinal cord.