A wave of abortions, stillbirths and deformities in sheep occurred at the Al-Ahsa oasis in the eastern region of Saudi Arabia in the second half of 1999. The abortions were recorded in August and September and stillbirths and deformities in neonates were observed in October. Adult sheep were clinically normal. A virus was isolated in chicken embryos, adapted to Vero cell culture and further ide...

the present study was conducted on sixty healthy female domestic ruminants that suffered from still births or abortion, to find sero-positive cases and also to determine the probable role of uterine tissue in diagnosis of akabane viral infection and viral persistency. because of this, a serological test (elisa) and molecular (rt-pcr) diagnostic methods were used to find the seropositive cases a...

Background and Aims: Akabane virus is an arbovirus in the genus Orthobunyavirus of the family Bunyaviridae that can affect ruminants such as cattle, sheep and goats. This arthropod-borne virus is transmitted by either mosquitoes or midges and has been identified as a cause of outbreaks of reproductive disorders (abortions, premature births, and stillbirths) and congenital malformations (arthrog...

A fresh isolate of Akabane virus was inoculated intravenously into 11 seronegative pregnant cows at 62 to 96 days of gestation. Two of the cows were slaughtered 18 days post-inoculation, and the fetuses were examined; the remaining cows were allowed to give birth. All the inoculated cows developed viremia and neutralizing antibody for the virus, indicating that the cows were actually infected w...

Vector-borne arboviruses produce mild to severe symptoms in domestic animals. Bovine ephemeral fever (BEF), Akabane, Aino, and Chuzan virus have been primarily attributed to reproductive disorders or febrile diseases in cattle, and Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV) is mainly associated with reproductive failures in swine. We investigated antibody titers from domestic swine against four bovine a...

Comparative analysis of the structural and possible non-structural proteins of seven Simbu serogroup bunyaviruses isolated in Australia revealed them all to be similar in size to those of Bunyamwera virus, the prototype of the Bunyavirus genus. The molecular weights of the structural proteins for these bunyaviruses (Akabane, Aino, Tinaroo, Douglas, Peaton, Facey's Paddock and Thimiri viruses) w...

Tests for antibodies to bovine bacterial and viral pathogens were conducted on 239 sera from 128 Arabian oryx (Oryx leucoryx) from seven locations (Taif, Riyadh and Mahazat as Said, Saudi Arabia; San Diego, United States of America [USA]; Shaumari, Jordan; Qatar; and Bahrain). No antibodies to Pasteurella multocida type E or epizootic haemorrhagic disease 1 virus were found. Antibodies to Bruce...

To prevent encephalomyelitis caused by Akabane virus, as observed in 2006, vaccination of calves is one of the most effective prophylactic measures. For vaccination of calves, the duration of the maternal antibodies need to be considered because these antibodies are an obstacle to the effectiveness of the vaccine. In order to estimate the age of antibody decay in calves and to find factors infl...

In New Zealand, an arbovirus surveillance program has been operating for more than 20 years, which includes testing of cattle with the Akabane virus neutralization test. With the aim to replace this laborious test by an easier-to-perform enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), 2 commercial ELISA kits, ELISA-1 from France (originally from Australia) and ELISA-2 from Japan, were compared, usin...

Viruses of the Simbu serogroup cause lesions to foetuses that are seen at birth and that correlate with the stage of pregnancy at which the dam first contracts the virus. The Simbu serogroup comprises arboviruses known to cause outbreaks of abnormal parturitions in domestic ruminants; these abnormalities include abortion, stillbirth, and congenitally deformed neonates. Simbu serogroup members i...