Evidence of Borna disease virus genome detection in French domestic animals and in foxes (Vulpes vulpes).

Borna disease virus (BDV) is an enveloped, non-segmented negative-stranded RNA virus which belongs to the Bornaviridae family. BDV is an aetiological agent of encephalitis in horses, sheep and several other vertebrate species. In order to extend our knowledge about the presence of BDV in France, a study based on BDV RNA detection by RT-nested-PCR was done with 196 animal tissues: 171 brain samples collected from different animal species (75 horses, 59 foxes, 31 cattle, 4 dogs, 1 sheep, 1 roe deer) and 25 horse blood samples. An RNA internal standard molecule was constructed and was co-amplified with the test template. This study reports the first detection of BDV RNA in France in 10 brain samples collected from horses, foxes and cattle, and from 14 horse blood samples. Detection of the BDV genome in the brains of six red foxes is the first evidence of BDV infection in this species.

Isolation of a non-haemadsorbing, non-cytopathic strain of African swine fever virus in Madagascar.

African swine fever (ASF) suspected clinically in Madagascar (1998-9) was confirmed by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and nucleotide sequencing, following virus isolation. No haemadsorption or cytopathic effect could be detected following leukocyte inoculation, but viral growth in cells was confirmed by PCR. Detection of ASF virus genome was carried out by amplification of a highly conserved region coding for the p72 protein. Nucleotide sequencing of the amplicon revealed 99.2% nucleotide identity between the recent Malagasy strains and a virus recovered from the 1994 outbreak in Mozambique (SPEC265). A serological survey performed on 449 sera, revealed that only 5.3% of the sera taken from pigs between 1998 and 1999 were positive.