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Genetic typing of bovine viral diarrhea virus (BVDV) has distinguished BVDV-1 and BVDV-2 species and an emerging putative third species (HoBi-like virus), recently detected in southern Italy, signaling the occurrence of natural infection in Europe. Recognizing the need to update the data on BVDV genetic variability in Italy for mounting local and European alerts, a wide collection of 5′ UTR sequences (n = 371) was selected to identify the frequency of genotypes and subtypes at the herd level. BVDV-1 had the highest frequency, followed by sporadic BVDV-2. No novel HoBi-like viruses were identified. Four distribution patterns of BVDV-1 subtypes were observed: highly prevalent subtypes with a wide temporal-spatial distribution (1b and 1e), low prevalent subtypes with a widespread geographic distribution (1a, 1d, 1g, 1h, and 1k) or a restricted geographic distribution (1f), and sporadic subtypes detected only in single herds (1c, 1j, and 1l). BVDV-1c, k, and l are reported for the first time in Italy. A unique genetic variant was detected in the majority of herds, but cocirculation of genetic variants was also observed. Northern Italy ranked first for BVDV introduction, prevalence, and dispersion. Nevertheless, the presence of sporadic variants in other restricted areas suggests the risk of different routes of BVDV introduction.

The distribution of Staphylococcus aureus within herds seems to be related to interactions among the shedding characteristics of the bacteria, their pathogenicity and mammary gland immune status. The aim of the present study was to investigate the relationships between selected mammary gland immune factors and intramammary infections associated with Staph. aureus. Overall, 70 cows from five commercial dairy herds were included in the study and quarter milk samples were assessed using bacteriological and cytological tests. We evaluated differential cell count, lysozyme concentration, N-acetyl-β-glucosaminidase (NAGase) activity, cell viability and respiratory burst activity in randomly chosen quarter milk samples from each cow. Staph. aureus intramammary infection elicited different responses in the mammary gland immune defences investigated. Polymorphonuclear leucocytes (PMN) as a proportion of total somatic cells in milk, cell viability and NAGase activity were higher in infected quarters, while the proportions of macrophages and lymphocytes, respiratory burst activity and lysozyme levels were lower. Mean values differed among herds, but the differences were not significant. These changes were associated with Staph. aureus infection. The reduced respiratory burst activity together with the increase in the proportion of PMN suggests that both the number and activity of PMN could influence the susceptibility of the mammary gland to pathogens. Indeed, the logistic model adopted suggests that impairment of milk immune factors could be concurrent with the development of an infection.

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Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever (CCHF) is a zoonosis mainly transmitted by ticks that causes severe hemorrhagic fever and has a mortality rate of 5-60%. The first outbreak of CCHF occurred in the Crimean peninsula in 1944-45 and it has recently emerged in the Balkans and eastern Mediterranean. In order to reconstruct the origin and pathway of the worldwide dispersion of the virus at global and regional (eastern European) level, we investigated the phylogeography of the infection by analysing 121 publicly available CCHFV S gene sequences including two recently characterised Albanian isolates. The spatial and temporal phylogeny was reconstructed using a Bayesian Markov chain Monte Carlo approach, which estimated a mean evolutionary rate of 2.96 x 10-4 (95%HPD=1.6 and 4.7 x 10-4) substitutions/site/year for the analysed fragment. All of the isolates segregated into seven highly significant clades that correspond to the known geographical clades: in particular the two new isolates from northern Albania clustered significantly within the Europe 1 clade. Our phylogeographical reconstruction suggests that the global CCHFV clades originated about one thousand years ago from a common ancestor probably located in Africa. The virus then spread to Asia in the XV century and entered Europe on at least two occasions: the first in the early 1800s, when a still circulating but less or non-pathogenic virus emerged in Greece and Turkey, and the second in the early 1900s, when a pathogenic CCHFV strain began to spread in eastern Europe. The most probable location for the origin of this European clade 1 was Russia, but Turkey played a central role in spreading the virus throughout Europe. Given the close proximity of the infected areas, our data suggest that the movement of wild and domestic ungulates from endemic areas was probably the main cause of the dissemination of the virus in eastern Europe.