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To determine whether avian bornaviruses (ABVs) were a factor in proventricular dilatation disease (PDD), we used immunohistochemistry, reverse transcription-PCR, and nucleotide sequence analysis to examine paraffin wax-embedded or frozen tissue samples of 31 psittacine birds with this disease. PDD is a fatal disease of psittacine birds associated with nonsuppurative encephalitis and ganglioneuritis of the upper intestinal tract. Tissue samples had been collected from 1999 through 2008 in Austria, Switzerland, Hungary, and Australia. Immunohistochemical demonstration of viral antigen within the brain and vegetative nerve system of the gastrointestinal tract provides strong evidence for a causative role of ABVs in this condition. Partial sequences of nucleoprotein (p40) and matrix protein (gp18) genes showed that virus in most of our cases belonged to the ABV-2 and ABV-4 groups among the 5 genogroups described so far. Viral sequences of 2 birds did not match any of the described sequences and clustered together in a new branch termed ABV-6.

Polcystic kidney disease (PKD) was diagnosed at necropsy in a captive aged female pygmy hippopotamus (Hexaprotodon liberiensis), which presented with numerous cysts in both kidneys, liver, duodenum and one single in the pancreas. There were no premonitory clinical signs of a nephropathy observed prior to its death. Similar findings were made in the male partner animal half a year later. Both animals had been wild-caught. A literature review showed that another seven cases of PKD have been reported in pygmy hippopotamuses, and an additional screening of records available from the international studbook for the species revealed yet another six cases. In all cases, aged females were affected, and in several instances, affected animals were related to each other. These patterns suggested familiar transmission, similar to PKD in humans and other animals. The disease, and especially the presumptive bias in diagnosis towards females – the male animal of this report was to our knowledge the first case of PKD reported in a male pygmy hippopotamus -, warrant further investigation. The status of the kidneys with respect to PKD should be assessed (including histology) in every deceased pygmy hippopotamus.

BACKGROUND: Two domestic shorthair cats presenting with progressive hind-limb ataxia and increased aggressiveness were necropsied and a post mortem diagnosis of Feline Spongiform Encephalopathy (FSE) was made. A wide spectrum of tissue samples was collected and evaluated histologically and immunohistologically for the presence of PrPSc. RESULTS: Histopathological examination revealed a diffuse vacuolation of the grey matter neuropil with the following areas being most severely affected: corpus geniculatum medialis, thalamus, gyrus dentatus of the hippocampus, corpus striatum, and deep layers of the cerebral and cerebellar cortex as well as in the brain stem. In addition, a diffuse glial reaction involving astrocytes and microglia and intraneuronal vacuolation in a few neurons in the brain stem was present.Heavy PrPSc immunostaining was detected in brain, retina, optic nerve, pars nervosa of the pituitary gland, trigeminal ganglia and small amounts in the myenteric plexus of the small intestine (duodenum, jejunum) and slightly in the medulla of the adrenal gland. CONCLUSION: The PrPSc distribution within the brain was consistent with that described in other FSE-affected cats. The pattern of abnormal PrP in the retina corresponded to that found in a captive cheetah with FSE, in sheep with scrapie and was similar to nvCJD in humans.

BACKGROUND: The broad enforcement of active surveillance for bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) in 2000 led to the discovery of previously unnoticed, atypical BSE phenotypes in aged cattle that differed from classical BSE (C-type) in biochemical properties of the pathological prion protein. Depending on the molecular mass and the degree of glycosylation of its proteinase K resistant core fragment (PrPres), mainly determined in samples derived from the medulla oblongata, these atypical cases are currently classified into low (L)-type or high (H)-type BSE. In the present study we address the question to what extent such atypical BSE cases are part of the BSE epidemic in Switzerland. RESULTS: To this end we analyzed the biochemical PrPres type by Western blot in a total of 33 BSE cases in cattle with a minimum age of eight years, targeting up to ten different brain regions. Our work confirmed H-type BSE in a zebu but classified all other cases as C-type BSE; indicating a very low incidence of H- and L-type BSE in Switzerland. It was documented for the first time that the biochemical PrPres type was consistent across different brain regions of aging animals with C-type and H-type BSE, i.e. independent of the neuroanatomical structure investigated. CONCLUSION: Taken together this study provides further characteristics of the BSE epidemic in Switzerland and generates new baseline data for the definition of C- and H-type BSE phenotypes, thereby underpinning the notion that they indeed represent distinct prion disease entities.

BVD-Virusinfektionen sind weltweit verbreitet. Diese Viruserkrankung verursacht hohe wirtschaftliche Kosten in der Rinderzucht und wird deshalb in verschiedenen Ländern bekämpft Persistent infizierte Tiere, wie sie nach intrauteriner Infektion entstehen, stellen eine Ansteckungsgefahr für die übrigen Herdentiere dar. Eine geeignete Nachweismethode persistenter BVDV Infektionen ist die Immunhistologie, die sowohl am lebenden wie auch am toten Tier angewendet werden kann. Die Immunhistologie mittels käuflicher monoklonalerAntikörper und Detektions-Kits ist einfach zu handhaben, sehr sensitiv und spezifisch. Für die Diagnose am lebenden Tier eignet sich die Hautbiopsie, am toten Tier sind Organe wie Schilddrüse, Zunge und Gehirn besonders geeignet. BVD-virus infection occur worldwide. This virally induced illness causes high economic losses in cattle reproduction and therefore eradication programms are implemented in various countries. Persistently infected animals are a source of 2 infection for other herdmates. One adequate method for diagnosing persistently infected animals in alive and death animals is the immunohistology. The immunohistology using commercially available monoclonal antibodies and detection kits is easy to perform, highly sensitive and specific. For the diagnosis in living animals a skin biopsy is appropriate, in death animals thyroid gland, tongue and brain are particularly suitable organs.

In this study, six immunocompetent calves were experimentally infected with a noncytopathic strain of bovine viral diarrhea virus (BVDV), and the effects of the viral infection on parameters of the innate immune response of the host were analyzed. Clinical and virological data were compared with the temporal activation of the alpha/beta interferon-regulated Mx gene in white blood cells (WBC) and skin as well as the upregulation of the acute-phase serum proteins haptoglobin (Hp) and serum amyloid A (SAA). The viral strain used did provoke transient health impairment, namely, fever and leukopenia that were associated with viremia, viral shedding with nasal secretions, and antiviral seroconversion. Complete recovery was observed within 3 weeks. Elevated levels of SAA and Hp were apparent from days 4 to 13 and 8 to 11, respectively. In WBC, the levels of Mx mRNA and Mx protein were elevated from days 2 to 15. In the context of this study with BVDV, the level of Mx protein expression in WBC provided the most telling diagnostic window to monitor the host's ongoing innate immune response.