A cytopathic agent was isolated in a baby hamster kidney (BHK)-21 cell-line from blood samples of cross-bred sheep showing typical bluetongue symptoms at Avikanagar in Rajasthan State, India. The cytopathic agent was identified as a bluetongue virus (BTV) by immunofluorescence, the immunoperoxidase test and electron microscopy of BHK-21 cells infected with the new isolate. The new isolate was t...

Exposure of free-ranging white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) and mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus) in western Nebraska to selected livestock pathogens was determined by serology and attempted virus isolation. Antibodies to bluetongue virus, epizootic hemorrhagic disease virus, and bovine respiratory syncytial virus were present in both species of deer. No serologic reactors to Brucella or ...

Ectoparasites reduce significantly animal production and welfare. They cause nuisance, anaemia, irritation and transfer of pathogens of important diseases, often leading to animal death. Examples of diseases with high mortality transmitted by arthropods include viral diseases, such as the Bluetongue disease, or parasitic diseases, such as piroplasmosis and filariosis. Biting midges of the Obsol...

The mechanism used by bluetongue virus (BTV) to ensure the sorting and packaging of its 10 genomic segments is still poorly understood. In this study, we investigated the packaging constraints for two BTV genomic segments from two different serotypes. Segment 4 (S4) of BTV serotype 9 was mutated sequentially and packaging of mutant ssRNAs was investigated by two newly developed RNA packaging as...

Since 1998 bluetongue virus (BTV), which causes bluetongue, a non-contagious, insect-borne infectious disease of ruminants, has expanded northwards in Europe in an unprecedented series of incursions, suggesting that there is a risk to the large and valuable British livestock industry. The basic reproduction number, R(0), provides a powerful tool with which to assess the level of risk posed by a...

A simplified procedure was developed for preparing soluble antigen from two related orbiviruses, bluetongue and epizootic hemorrhagic disease viruses, for agar gel immunodiffusion. The antigens gave excellent results in both micro-agar gel diffusion (agar gel precipitin) and macro-agar gel diffusion (bluetongue immunodiffusion). Minor modification in the spatial arrangement of reference antiser...

Our objective was to study the ability of a syndromic surveillance system to identify spatio-temporal clusters of drops in the number of calvings among beef cows during the Bluetongue epizootic of 2007 and 2008, based on calving seasons. France was partitioned into 300 iso-populated units, i.e. units with quite the same number of beef cattle. Only 1% of clusters were unlikely to be related to B...

In late summer/early fall of 2013, 2 South American camelids from central Washington were diagnosed with fatal bluetongue viral disease, an event which is rarely reported. A 9-year-old intact male llama (Lama glama), with a 1-day history of anorexia, recumbency, and dyspnea before death. Abundant foam discharged from the mouth and nostrils, and the lungs were severely edematous on postmortem ex...

Bluetongue virus is the type species of the genus Orbivirus in the family Reoviridae. We report the first complete genome sequence of an isolate (IND2004/01) of bluetongue virus serotype 10 (BTV-10) from Andhra Pradesh, India. This isolate, which is stored in the Orbivirus Reference Collection (ORC) at IAH Pirbright, shows >99% nucleotide identity in all 10 genome segments with a vaccine strain...

A modified passive cutaneous anaphylaxis test and an ELISA were used to identify IgE in calves vaccinated (sensitized) with chlorine dioxide-inactivated bluetongue virus (BTV) and in calves inoculated with infectious BTV. The levels of IgE were greatest in the vaccinated calves after challenge with infectious virus, which correlated with development of clinically apparent dermatitis and stomati...