Types C and D strains of Clostridium botulinum are commonly related to avian and mammalian botulism. Although there are numerous vaccine recommendations, little research has been conducted to indicate the real effectiveness of vaccine timing or the ideal immunization protocol for young beef calves. Four commercially available vaccines, two bivalent (Clostridium botulinum types C and D; vaccines 1 and 2) and two polyvalent (all Clostridium spp. including Clostridium botulinum types C and D; vaccines 3 and 4), that are currently used in Brazilian herds, were tested in order to verify the maternal immune response. One hundred cows, divided into four vaccinated groups and one unvaccinated group, were given a two-dose subcutaneous immunization, at day zero, followed by a second dose given at 42 days post-vaccination, which corresponded to 40 days before birth. Serum samples (n = 75) were collected only from healthy neonatal calves at 0, 7, 45 and 90 days post-calving (DPC) and subjected to indirect ELISA using the purified C and D holotoxins as capture antigens. The serological profile showed that all vaccines were able to induce a satisfactory neonatal immune response to both holotoxins at 7 DPC. However, at 45 and 90 DPC, a significant reduction (p < 0.05) was observed in the antibody level against C and D holotoxins in all tested vaccines. Neonatal immunization in calves is compromised by significant levels of maternal antibodies so that the necessity of planning a calf vaccination program involves assessment of disease risks at the production site. Finally, our findings represent the first demonstration of maternal immunity transferred to neonatal beef calves, including immunity levels after vaccination against Clostridium botulinum toxoids C and D.

Infection of susceptible ruminants, including domestic cattle (Bos taurus) and American bison (Bison bison), with ovine herpesvirus-2 (OvHV-2) may provoke the fatal vasculitis and lymphoproliferative syndrome, known as malignant catarrhal fever (MCF), reported worldwide. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of a clinical case of MCF-like lesions associated with ovine herpesvirus-2 (OvHV-2) infection in young calves (Bos indicus) including central nervous symptoms that occurred in Três Lagoas city, Mato Grosso do Sul state, a border town near São Paulo state, Brazil. The diagnosis was based on typical histological lesions characterized by systemic lymphohistiocytic and fibrinoid vasculitis, confirmed by polymerase chain reaction and subsequent phylogenetic analysis of detected OvHV-2 sequences. This finding indicates that MCF disease is spread among herds concentrated in border areas between Mato Grosso do Sul and São Paulo states.

A four-year-old male goat with a history of neurological disorder was euthanized. It presented uncommon nodules in the brain and lungs associated with multiple abscesses, predominantly in the spleen and liver. Histological examination of brain and lung sections revealed yeast forms confirmed to be Cryptococcus gattii after a combination of isolation and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) procedures. Moreover, Corynebacterium pseudotuberculosis infection was diagnosed by PCR of samples from the lung, spleen and liver. The present report highlights the rare concurrent infection of C. gatti and C. pseudotuberculosis in an adult goat from São Paulo state, Brazil, and indicates the necessity of surveillance in the treatment of goats with atypical pulmonary infections associated with neurological disorders.

Rabies is a vaccine-preventable disease that causes acute encephalitis in mammals, and it is still a significant public health problem in numerous countries. Infected dogs represent the main vectors involved in human rabies. Additionally, cattle rearing close to geographic areas where vampire bats are found presents an important connection with rural epidemiology. We applied two "in-house" enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) methodologies, considered alternatives to measure antibodies from vaccinated dogs and cattle, without employing the gold standard approach. The ELISA assays were performed on individual serum samples taken from domestic adult dogs and cows compulsory vaccinated against rabies (147 urban dogs and 64 cows; n = 211). The sandwich and liquid-phase competitive ELISA (scELISA and lpcELISA), considered "in-house" assays, were performed according to previous works. The only statistical methodology that allows this study is the Bayesian approach, developed to replace the conventional Hui-Walter paradigm. For conditional independent Bayesian model (one population, two tests and no gold standard) the prior information for sensitivity and specificity of each test, mode, prevalence and transformed (á, â) were submitted to Bayesian inference. The "in-house" lpcELISA revealed 16 - out of 261 serum samples - negative results, whereas in scELISA all results were positive. The Bayesian approach showed that prior information was specified for all parameters; posterior medians were Se scELISA 89%, Sp scELISA 88%, Sp lpcELISA 95% Se lpcELISA 98%, and prevalence (pi) of 99%, without the use of gold standard analysis to measure specific anti-rabies antibodies.

Susceptibility of chicken embryo related cells (CER) to non-classical IBDV was compared with Vero cells for the same purpose. It was used 20 bursal samples collected from clinical cases of IBDV, positive by histopathological evaluation. After three times infection of CER and Vero cells monolayers, at 6, 12, 18, 24, 48, 60 and 72h post-infection (PI), extra-cellular and intracelluar IBDV was measured. The extra-cellular amount of IBDV particles was quantified by DAS-ELISA from 6h PI, and increased for both cells studied until 72h PI. The IBDV re-isolation performed by infecting chicken embryos showed positive results at all PI studied. The intracellular IBDV RNA was shown by RT-PCR, where all tested samples were positive. However, the cytopathic effect (CPE) caused by IBDV infection was pronounced at 18h for Vero and 36h for CER cells. The RT-PCR was done to detect IBDV RNA from the bursa samples, where all were positive. Regarding to IBDV isolation, 20% of samples tested were negative in Vero cells, where all were positive in CER cells infection. The findings allow concluding that CER cell can be a new and appropriated tool for IBDV isolation.

No presente estudo, foram vacinados 150 frangos de corte de um dia de idade com sorotipo H120, e, após 28 dias desafiados à vacinação com o sorotipo M 41 do vírus da bronquite infecciosa das aves. Da mesma forma, foram obtidos 150 soros de aves não vacinadas para a análise. Os respectivos soros foram analisados 28, 34 e 46 dias após o desafio, examinados através das técnicas de ELISA indireto (ELISA-I), Sandwich ELISA (S-ELISA) e ELISA com bloqueio de fase líquida (ELISA-BFL) e comparados com a técnica padrão de soroneutralização (SN) para efeito de cálculo da especificidade e sensibilidade relativas, bem como os valores predictivos positivos e negativos. O cálculo do coeficiente de correlação também foi empregado para a análise de concordância. Assim, os valores da correlação encontrados foram r = 0.98 entre ELISA-BFL x SNT, r = 0.79 entre S-ELISA x SNT e r = 0.74 ELISA-I x SNT. No entanto, quando comparamos as técnicas de ELISA entre si, ELISA-BFL x S-ELISA, ELISA-BFL x ELISA-I e S-ELISA x ELISA-I os valores encontrados foram r = 0.75, r = 0.69 e r = 0.79. A técnica de ELISA-BFL demonstrou melhor sensibilidade relativa que as técnicas de S-ELISA e ELISA-I, mesmo 46 dias após o desafio com a estirpe heteróloga. Entretanto, apesar das técnicas de S-ELISA e ELISA-I apresentarem especificidade realtiva superiores, a melhor correlação observada foi entre as técnicas de ELISA-BFL e a SN.

Broilers were spray-vaccinated (n=150) with H120 serotype at one-day-old, challenged after 28 days with M41 IBV serotype and after bled at day 28, 34 and 46 after challenged. The respective sera were tested by the indirect ELISA (I-ELISA), sandwich ELISA (S-ELISA), liquid phase blocking ELISA (LPB-ELISA) and the standard serum neutralization test (SNT). For this purpose, a total of 300 sera samples, 150 from non vaccinated and 150 from vaccinated broilers were titrated by all the serological methods and the correlation coefficients were determined. The correlation values (r) between LPB-ELISA x SNT, S-ELISA x SNT, I-ELISA x SNT found werer = 0.98, r = 0.79, and r = 0.74, respectively. Nevertheless, the r between LPB-ELISA x S-ELISA, LPB-ELISA x I-ELISA and S-ELISA x I-ELISA were r = 0.75, r = 0.69 and r = 0.79. In fact , the I-ELISA and the S-ELISA had almost the same correlation with S-ELISA and LPB-ELISA, in contrast with the I-ELISA and LPB-ELISA. It was concluded that LPB-ELISA showed better sensitivity than I-ELISA and S-ELISA, also after 46 days challenge with the heterologous serotype. However, these two last techniques demonstrated similar specificity when the titers were compared with those obtained in SNT, even though after the heterologous serotype challenge the SNT produced better results. This study demonstrated the close relationship between LPB-ELISA and SNT assays.