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African horse sickness (AHS) is a viral disease of equids, caused by a virus of the genus Orbivirus, family Reoviridae. The African horse sickness virus (AHSV) genome is made up of ten double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) segments that together code for seven structural and four nonstructural proteins. AHS is endemic in sub-Saharan countries. The efficacy and safety of inactivated AHS vaccines containing all nine serotypes, produced at the Central Veterinary Research Laboratory (CVRL) in Dubai, United Arab Emirates have been proven in the past. All nine AHSV serotypes were isolated from 102 samples collected in the last 20 years from horse fatalities in seven different area of Kenya, Africa. CVRL inactivated AHS vaccines are used in a few African countries defining the importance of this present study to compare the genome sequences of the nine AHSV serotypes isolated from horse fatalities in Kenya and nine AHSV serotypes isolated in South Africa. The hypothesized serotypes of the newly sequenced AHSV field strains from Kenya were likewise confirmed in this investigation, and they show substantial sequence homologies with recently isolated AHSV field strains.

The recent discovery of Middle East Respiratory Coronavirus and another novel dromedary camel coronavirus UAE-HKU23 in dromedaries has boosted interest in search of novel viruses in dromedaries. In this study, fecal samples of 203 dromedaries in Dubai were pooled and deep sequenced. Among the 7330 assembled viral contigs, 1970 were assigned to mammalian viruses. The largest groups of these contigs matched to Picobirnaviridae, Circoviridae, Picornaviridae, Parvoviridae, Astroviridae and Hepeviridae. Many of these viral families were previously unknown to dromedaries. In addition to the high abundance of contigs from Circoviridae (n=598 with 14 complete genomes) and Picobirnaviridae (n=1236), a high diversity of contigs from these two families was found, with the 14 Circoviridae complete genomes forming at least five clusters and contigs from both genogroup I and genogroup II potentially novel picobirnaviruses. Further studies comparing the incidence of these viral families in healthy and sick dromedaries will reveal their pathogenic potential., Highlights • The viromes of fecal samples from dromedaries in the Middle East were analyzed. • Circoviridae and Picobirnaviridae are most abundant among the mammalian viruses. • A high diversity of contigs from Circoviridae and Picobirnaviridae was observed.

Working donkeys (n = 395) originating from three different districts of the Oromia region of Ethiopia were examined October 2009 and April 2010 for the prevalence of equine piroplasmosis between. Apart from hematological and serological examination, tick vectors were collected and determined. Intraerythrocytic stages of Theileria equi and Babesia caballi were detected in 12.2% and 1.8% of examined stained blood smears, respectively. The seroprevalence of T. equi and B. caballi was 55.7% and 13.2%, respectively. The majority of active infection coincided with anemia. Only 16 donkeys were infested with four species of hard ticks: Rhipicephalus turanicus, Rhipicephalus evertsi evertsi, Rhipicephalus pulchellus, and Amblyomma variegatum.

The activity of alkaline phosphatase (ALP), gamma-glutamyltransferase (GGT), lactoperoxidase (LPO), lipase (LIP) and leucine arylamidase (LAP) in raw and pasteurised camel milk was studied, in order, to find a heat treatment indicator suitable to verify an effective pasteurisation. The studies have shown that ALP, GGT and LIP are not suitable as marker because residual activities were detected in pasteurised milk. LAP activity in raw camel milk is too low and the data variation is too high for serving as a marker. The LPO results look promising. The enzyme activity in raw camel milk is high and the respective value in pasteurised milk is predominantly below the detection limit of the method.

A polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assay targeting the flagellin P ( fliP )-I S 407 A genomic region of Burkholderia mallei was developed for the specific detection of this organism in pure cultures and clinical samples from a recent outbreak of equine glanders. Primers deduced from the known fliP -IS 407 A sequence of B. mallei American Type Culture Collection (ATCC) 23344 T allowed the specific amplification of a 989-bp fragment from each of the 20 B. mallei strains investigated, whereas other closely related organisms tested negative. The detection limit of the assay was 10 fg for purified DNA of B. mallei ATCC 23344 T . B . mallei DNA was also amplified from various tissues of horses with a generalized B . mallei infection. The developed PCR assay can be used as a simple and rapid tool for the specific and sensitive detection of B. mallei in clinical samples.