Unlabelled: This nonrandomized clinical intervention study was designed as a prospective, multicenter group comparison to evaluate the efficacy of a risk assessment and mitigation program to control bovine digital dermatitis (BDD). The program was implemented over a 1-year period on 9 intervention (INT) farms and 10 control (CTR) farms. Mainstays of the program derived from results of a previous BDD risk factor analysis.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBastroviruses (BastV) are non-enveloped single-stranded positive-sense RNA viruses that have been discovered recently in feces samples of different animals and humans. The non-structural proteins of these viruses show similarities to those of hepevirids (), and the structural proteins exhibit similarities to those of astrovirids (). BastVs have been found in fecal samples of mammals, amphibians, and invertebrates, but the association of infection and clinical disease manifestations has not been established.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: Rabies is a fatal neurological zoonotic disease affecting warm-blooded animals, causing nearly 60,000 human deaths annually, primarily in developing Asian and African countries (95 % of cases). This review examines the prevalence and incidence of rabies in tested humans and animals across Asia.
Methods: We searched for scientific articles published in peer-reviewed journals between 2010 and 2024 in electronic databases.
In April 2024, following the annual International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV) ratification vote on newly proposed taxa, the phylum was expanded by 1 new order, 1 new family, 6 new subfamilies, 34 new genera and 270 new species. One class, two orders and six species were renamed. Seven families and 12 genera were moved; ten species were renamed and moved; and nine species were abolished.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEnteric viruses are commonly associated with gastrointestinal diseases but have the capacity, with mostly unknown triggers, to invade the central nervous system (CNS). Neuropathogenic enteric viruses (NEV) that are able to cross or bypass the blood-brain barrier cause debilitating neurological inflammation and disease. The most notorious example of an enteric virus with potential neurotropism is poliovirus, a member of the family.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBorna disease virus 1 (BoDV-1) is the causative agent of Borna disease, a fatal neurologic disorder of domestic mammals and humans, resulting from spill-over infection from its natural reservoir host, the bicolored white-toothed shrew (Crocidura leucodon). The known BoDV-1-endemic area is remarkably restricted to parts of Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Liechtenstein. To gain comprehensive data on its occurrence, we analysed diagnostic material from suspected BoDV-1-induced encephalitis cases based on clinical and/or histopathological diagnosis.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNeospora spp. and Toxoplasma gondii are two closely related protozoan parasites that are widely distributed throughout the world. Horses can act as intermediate hosts for both parasites and can acquire disease.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFVirus spillovers from managed honey bees, Apis mellifera, are thought to contribute to the decline of wild pollinators, including bumble bees. However, data on the impact of such viruses on wild pollinators remain scarce, and the influence of landscape structure on virus dynamics is poorly understood. In this study, we deployed bumble bee colonies in an agricultural landscape and studied changes in the bumble bee virome during field placement under varying habitat composition and configuration using a multiscale analytical framework.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: This study presents the case of non-purulent encephalomyelitis associated with astrovirus infection in a sheep from Eastern Anatolia, Türkiye.
Methods: A necropsy was performed on a sheep showing nervous signs. Afterwards, brain tissue samples were taken and examined with histopathological, immunohistochemical and molecular techniques.
In a retrospective metatranscriptomics study, we identified tick-borne encephalitis virus (TBEV) to be the causative agent for a fatal non-suppurative meningoencephalitis in a three-week-old Dalmatian puppy in Switzerland. Further investigations showed that the two other littermates with similar signs and pathological lesions were also positive for TBEV. By using an unbiased approach of combining high-throughput sequencing (HTS) and bioinformatics we were able to solve the etiology and discover an unusual case of TBEV in three young puppies.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEuropean native crayfish populations are undergoing a strong decline due to environmental factors and the introduction of highly competitive non-native species. Pathogens are an additional threat to native crayfish. However, aside from the crayfish plague, other infectious diseases are still widely unknown.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Vet Intern Med
November 2023
Feline morbillivirus (FeMV) is a recently discovered morbillivirus of the family Paramyxoviridae, which include several highly contagious viruses with zoonotic potential. In this case report we describe the detection of FeMV in archived brain tissue of a 2-month-old Bengal cat with nonsuppurative encephalitis from the year 2011 in Switzerland by high-throughput sequencing (HTS). Our metagenomics approach was able to obtain a full-length sequence covering the entire FeMV genome.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAstroviruses are small nonenveloped single-stranded RNA viruses with a positive sense genome. They are known to cause gastrointestinal disease in a broad spectrum of species. Although astroviruses are distributed worldwide, a gap in knowledge of their biology and disease pathogenesis persists.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMicrobiol Resour Announc
April 2023
We obtained the near-complete genome sequence of a novel virus, Lötschberg virus (LTBV), from a European perch metatranscriptome. Genome organization and pairwise sequence comparison indicated that LTBV represents a tentative new species and genus of the mononegaviral family
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInterdigital hyperplasia (IH) is a fold of fibrous tissue protruding into the interdigital space that rarely occurs in sheep. Interdigital hyperplasia secondary infected with bovine digital dermatitis (BDD) treponemes has been reported in cattle in the course of the increasing spread of classical BDD lesions. In this report, we describe proliferative/ulcerative interdigital lesions associated with contagious ovine digital dermatitis (CODD) treponemes and clinically scored as (IH+CODD), occurring in both hind limbs of a ram and the left hindlimb of a ewe.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTransbound Emerg Dis
July 2022
Coronaviruses are causing severe respiratory and enteric diseases in humans and animals. Here, we report an outbreak of equine coronavirus disease in adult horses, detected by a voluntary syndromic surveillance scheme for equine diseases in Switzerland. This scheme allowed a rapid concerted action to diagnose and contain the disease.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFRetrovirology
December 2021
Background: The majority of emerging infectious diseases in humans are of animal origin, and many of them are caused by neuropathogenic viruses. Many cases of neurological disease and encephalitis in livestock remain etiologically unresolved, posing a constant threat to animal and human health. Thus, continuous extension of our knowledge of the repertoire of viruses prone to infect the central nervous system (CNS) is vital for pathogen monitoring and the early detection of emerging viruses.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEmerg Infect Dis
December 2021
European perch (Perca fluviatilis) are increasingly farmed as a human food source. Viral infections of European perch remain largely unexplored, thereby putting farm populations at incalculable risk for devastating fish epizootics and presenting a potential hazard to consumers. To address these concerns, we applied metatranscriptomics to identify disease-associated viruses in European perch farmed in Switzerland.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAstrovirus infections are among the main causes of diarrhea in children, but their significance for animal health has remained underestimated and largely unknown. This is changing due to the increasing amount of newly identified neurotropic astroviruses in cases of nonsuppurative encephalitis and neurological disease in humans, pigs, ruminant species and minks. Neurological cases in ruminants and humans usually occur sporadically and as isolated cases.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHypomyelination is a rare consequence of in utero bovine viral diarrhoea virus (BVDV) infection. We describe a BVDV outbreak in a naïve Holstein dairy herd in northern Italy, with an unusually high prevalence of calves with neurological signs, generalised tremors and ataxia. Histological analysis showed that hypomyelination was the predominant lesion and that the most typical BVDV neuropathological findings (e.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFViruses
December 2020
An 8-year-old alpaca was admitted to the emergency service of the Clinic for Ruminants in Bern due to a reduced general condition and progressive neurological signs. Despite supportive treatment, its condition deteriorated and the animal had to be euthanized. Histopathological analysis revealed a severe non-suppurative polioencephalomyelitis with neuronal necrosis, most likely of viral origin.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFListeria rhombencephalitis, infection of the brainstem with , occurs mainly in humans and farmed ruminants and is associated with high fatality rates. Small ruminants (goats and sheep) are a large animal model due to neuropathological similarities. The purpose of this study was to define magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) features of listeria rhombencephalitis in naturally infected small ruminants and correlate them with histopathology.
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