Testing assembly strategies of Francisella tularensis genomes to infer an evolutionary conservation analysis of genomic structures.

Background: We benchmarked sequencing technology and assembly strategies for short-read, long-read, and hybrid assemblers in respect to correctness, contiguity, and completeness of assemblies in genomes of Francisella tularensis. Benchmarking allowed in-depth analyses of genomic structures of the Francisella pathogenicity islands and insertion sequences. Five major high-throughput sequencing technologies were applied, including next-generation "short-read" and third-generation "long-read" sequencing methods.

Evidence for enzootic circulation of Rift Valley fever virus among livestock in Cameroon.

Rift Valley fever virus (RVFV) is an arthropod-borne pathogen, causing serious epidemics in Africa and the Arabian Peninsula. In Cameroon serological data indicate the presence of RVFV, but active circulation of RVFV, causing clinical infections has not been proven yet. For this purpose we carried out a serological and molecular study on a total of 1953 randomly selected serum samples of small ruminants and cattle, which were collected in years 2013 and 2014 in Cameroon.

Epidemiological and Molecular Analysis of an Outbreak of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza H5N8 clade 2.3.4.4 in a German Zoo: Effective Disease Control with Minimal Culling.

Outbreaks of highly pathogenic avian influenza A virus (HPAIV) subtype H5N8, clade 2.3.4.

BVD-2 outbreak leads to high losses in cattle farms in Western Germany.

In November 2012, a dairy farmer in the district Kleve first observed a reduction in milk yield, respiratory symptoms, nasal discharge, fever, sporadic diarrhoea and sudden deaths in dairy cows and calves. In the following months, further farms were found infected with cattle showing similar clinical signs. An epidemiological investigation was carried out to identify the source of infection, the date of introduction, potential transmission pathways and to analyse the extent of the epidemic.