Low incidence of Schmallenberg virus infection in natural cases of abortion in domestic ruminants in Hungary

Abstract

AbstractAn epizootic caused by a new orthobunyavirus called Schmallenberg virus (SBV) was recognised in European ruminants in 2011 and 2012. The re-emergence of the infection was reported in several countries in the subsequent years. Although the main clinical sign of SBV infection is abortion, the impact of SBV in natural cases of abortion in domestic ruminants had not been systematically examined before this study. The aim of the study was to investigate the role of SBV infection and to compare it to the importance of other causes of abortion by examining 537 natural cases of abortion that had occurred between 2011 and 2017 in Hungary. The cause of abortion was determined in 165 (31%) cases. An infectious cause was proved in 88 (16%) cases. SBV infection was found only in a total of four cases (0.8%) using real-time polymerase chain reaction. Three of them proved to be inapparent SBV infection, and one case was attributed to SBV-induced abortion by detecting non-purulent encephalitis and SBV nucleoprotein by immunohistochemistry in a brain tissue sample. According to the results, SBV played a minor role in natural cases of domestic ruminant abortion in Hungary during the 7-year period following the first SBV outbreak in 2011.