Schmallenberg Virus Infection in Dogs, France, 2012

Norway rats resulted in the worldwide distribution of Seoul hantavirus today. Liu Y, et al. Complete genome sequence of Seoul virus isolated from Rattus norvegicus in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. Genetic diversity of hantaviruses isolated in China and characterization of novel hantaviruses isolated from Niviventer confucianus and Rattus rattus. Choosing appropriate substitution models for the phylogenetic analysis of protein-coding sequences. molecular evolutionary genetics analysis using maximum likelihood, evolutionary distance, and maximum parsimony methods. a total of >1,000 cases were reported in France, mainly in stillborn and newborn lambs with congenital malformations. In March 2012, neurologic disorders were detected in five 15-day-old puppies (Belgian shepherd) from a dog breeding kennel in northwestern France (Orne). We report data suggesting that these puppies were infected with SBV. In June 2012, the kennel veterinarian contacted a veterinary school Figure. Phylogenetic tree, based on a 330-bp amplicon of the Seoul virus (SEOV) RNA-dependent RNA polymerase gene, depicted in FigTree 1.4.0 (www.molecularevolution. org/software/phylogenetics/ figtree). The tree was generated by using the uncorrelated lognormal distribution relaxed molecular clock model and SRD06 substitution model in BEAST1.74 (7). SEOV strain name/GenBank accession no/country: The location is shown in taxa. The posterior number is shown for each branch. Clades A and D were established as described (2) Scale bar represents number of nucleotide changes per site. LETTERS head tilt, and stunted growth were observed in a litter of 5 puppies. Four of the puppies had died at 5–6 weeks of age. The veterinarian collected blood samples from the surviving puppy at 3 months of age, and the puppy was eu-thanized for necropsy. Severe torticol-lis was observed during the necropsy, but no other macroscopic signs were detected. The brain, including the cer-ebellum; a part of the spine; and ce-rebrospinal fluid (CSF) were collected for further investigation. Specific PCR analyses for canine coronavirus, Neospora caninum, Toxoplasma gon-dii, and canine minute virus were performed on CSF; all test results were negative. The brain tissue was fixed in formalin and processed for histologic examination. Features of degenerative encephalopathy, including neuronal vacuolation, neuropil vacuolation, and minimal gliosis, were observed. Because some clinical signs were evocative of SBV infection and the puppy was born in an area where the virus was circulating actively in cattle and sheep, veterinarians decided to investigate SBV as a possible etiology. Serum samples from the 3-month-old puppy and the dam were tested by virus neutralization test (VNT), according to …