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Schmallenberg Virus in Calf Born at Term with Porencephaly, Belgium

2012; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; Volume: 18; Issue: 6 Linguagem: Inglês

10.3201/eid1806.120104

1080-6059

Mutien-Marie Gariglinany, Bernd Hoffmann, Marc Dive, Arnaud Sartelet, Calixte Bayrou, Dominique Cassart, Martin Beer, Daniel Desmecht,

Agriculture and Farm Safety

Schmallenberg Virus in Calf Born at Term with Porencephaly, BelgiumTo the Editor: From the end of August through the end of October 2011, a clinical syndrome involving adult cattle and the fetuses of pregnant cows emerged in the border area between the Netherlands and North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany (1).The syndrome was characterized by nonspecifi c clinical signs (fever, decreased milk production), severe diarrhea, and some abortions.A metagenomic analysis was conducted on pooled samples from cattle with acute signs on a farm in the city of Schmallenberg, Germany.The analysis detected nucleotide sequences homologous to arthropodborne Akabane, Aino, and Shamonda viruses, all belonging to the family Bunyaviridae, genus Orthobunyavirus, and Simbu serogroup (1).Real-time PCR detected the genomic RNA of the new and emerging virus, tentatively designated Schmallenberg virus (SBV), in the blood of adult cattle, abdominal fl uid of a stillborn calf, and brains of lambs born with birth defects on dozens of farms in the Netherlands, Germany, and Belgium.No data are yet available to predict how the emerging virus might affect the cattle industry.We report the case of a 1-week old calf with severe central nervous system (CNS) lesions probably caused by in utero infection with the new virus.In Belgium in January 2012, a Belgian Blue multiparous cow gave birth to a 45-kg female calf that was morphologically normal but hypertonic and hyperrefl exic.Pregnancy had proceeded uneventfully and lasted 9 months and 4 days.Spontaneous refl exes such as sucking, swallowing, micturition, defecation, and crying were completely preserved, but the calf was unable to