BackgroundIn the last few decades, Romania has been considered one of the European countries most affected by animal rabies, but a combination of oral rabies vaccination (ORV) campaigns in foxes alongside mandatory vaccination of pets has substantially decreased the number of rabies cases in recent years.The objective of this study was to detect rabies antibodies in wild boar serum and thoracic fluid samples collected during the hunting season after ORV campaigns in north-eastern Romania in order to identify if wild boars are substantial competitors to foxes for ORV baits.ResultsWhen the 312 wild boar samples were tested by ELISA (BioPro ELISA, Czech Republic), 42.31% (132/312) demonstrated rabies antibodies. In order to compare these wild boar results in terms of the percentage of immunisation, fox samples were also included in the study, and in this case only 28.40% (98/345) demonstrated rabies antibodies by ELISA. To check the diagnostic sensitivity and specificity of this ELISA, those samples with a sufficient volume from both species that had tested either negative or positive with an initial ELISA were then tested with the Fluorescent Antibody Virus Neutralisation (FAVN) assay. The overall concordance between the BioPro ELISA and FAVN test was 74.26% (75/101) in wild boar samples and 65.66% (65/99) in fox samples, 140 out of 200 samples being correlated with the two methods, although no significant statistical difference (p = 0.218) between the two species was registered. We found a good agreement by both tests for the ELISA-positive samples (91.30%), however the situation was different for the ELISA-negative samples, where a low agreement was demonstrated (41.18%).ConclusionsThis study reports for the first time the presence of rabies antibodies in wild boar samples collected during the hunting season in Romania after ORV campaigns in rabies endemic areas. It is also the first study to demonstrate that ELISA BioPro can be used on wild boar samples with satisfactory results compared to the FAVN test for this species.

IntroductionBovine papillomaviruses −1/−2 (BPVs) are small non-enveloped double-stranded DNA viruses able to infect the skin of bovids and equids, causing development of neoplastic lesions such as bovine cutaneous fibropapillomas and equine sarcoid. Matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) are a group of zinc-dependent endopeptidases that degrade basal membrane and extracellular matrix, whose function is essential in physiological processes such as tissue remodeling and wound healing. MMPs activity is finely regulated by a balancing with expression of tissue inhibitors of MMPs (TIMPs), a process that is impaired during tumour development. BPV infection is associated with upregulation of MMPs and /or their unbalancing with TIMPs, contributing to local invasion and impairment of extracellular matrix remodeling in equine sarcoid; however, studies regarding this topic in bovine fibropapillomas are lacking.MethodsThe aim of this study was to perform an immunohistochemical and biochemical analysis on a panel of MMPs and TIMPs in BPV-2 positive bovine cutaneous fibropapillomas vs. normal skin samples.ResultsImmunohistochemistry revealed a cytoplasmic expression of MMP-2 (15/19), a cytoplasmic and perinuclear immunoreactivity of MMP-7 (19/19) and MMP-9 (19/19), along with a cytoplasmic and nuclear pattern of MMP-14 (16/19), accompanied by a cytoplasmic expression of TIMP-1 (14/19) and TIMP-2 (18/19) in tumour samples; western blotting revealed an overexpression of MMP-2 (8/9), MMP-7 (9/9) and MMP-9 (9/9), and a decreased level of MMP-14 (9/9), TIMP-1 (9/9) and TIMP-2 (9/9) in tumour versus normal skin samples. Moreover, gelatine zymography confirmed the expression of pro-active MMP-2 (9/9) and MMP-9 (9/9) and, most importantly, indicated the presence and increased activity of their active forms (82 and 62 kDa, respectively) in tumour samples.DiscussionThis is the first study describing MMPs and TIMPs in bovine cutaneous fibropapillomas and our results suggest that their unbalanced expression in presence of BPV-2 may play a significant role in tumour development. A further analysis of supplementary MMPs and TIMPs could bring new important insights into the papillomavirus induced tumours.

The goat flock in our country is steadily increasing, so that if 1072013 animals were reported in 2007, they were 1804478 in December 2016 that reflecting the growing interest of breeders for this species. This paper aims to highlight the dynamics of infectious pathology in the goat population in the Northeast region of Romania during 2014-2017, the factors that led to the emergence of diseases, as well as the prevention and control measures. The most common diseases are those of the respiratory, digestive, reproductive and locomotors apparatus produced by infectious pathogens such as Pasteurella spp., Artrithis Encephalitis Virus, Orf Virus, Mycoplasma agalactiae, Dichelobacter nodosus and Fusobacterium necrophorum. Research has led to establishment of the prevalence of infectious diseases in goats, so the results show that the most affected breeds are specialized breeds: Saanen and French Alpine, kids being more sensitive compared to adult animals. Knowledge of the epidemiological situation is the basis for proposing specific control and / or prevention plans that allow the design, management and evaluation of goat health programs.

Leptospirosis is a zoonosis of constant importance as causative microbial agent, maintained by subclinical infections in wild and domestic animals. Currently, for active immunization in dogs is used an inactivated vaccine, produced by specialized companies in different countries. The vast majority are polyvalent vaccines, which include the two leptospire serovars (Leptospira canicola and Leptospira icterohaemorhagiae) and viral antigens for prevention of infectious hepatitis Rubarht, Carré's disease, coronavirus and parainfluence. Specific immunity induced by this inactivated vaccine, is active, individual, installs in 10 to 21 days after administration, lasting a variable time (4-6 months) and never causes a 100% protection. This paper aims to investigate how this immune response in carnivores and its protection.

Leishmaniasis, a vector-borne disease considered to be one of the twenty neglected diseases by the World Health Organization, represents one of the public health concerns in endemic countries. In humans, as well as in animal counterparts, the infection can evolve with different clinical localizations, such as those that are cutaneous, mucocutaneous and visceral. Romania has been traditionally considered a nonendemic country for Leishmania species infection and has had sporadic positive human cases; however, the climate change recorded in recent decades has created potentially optimal conditions for the preponderant vectors of Phlebotomus spp., which has lately been identified in various parts of country. Moreover, with people and dogs (the prevailing hosts) traveling in endemic countries, the disease was imported and diagnosed in both species, and became a medical concern. In this review, we focused on the: (1) epidemiological data of leishmaniasis cases, both in humans and animals, reported by Romania; (2) diagnostic tools available for confirmation since there is a lack of gold-standard laboratory methods for human and dog patients; and (3) conventional antileishmanial therapy.

Rabies is a viral zoonosis caused by a virus of the genus Lyssavirus, Rhabdoviridae family, which is responsible for a mortality rate of almost 100%, known as one of the most feared zoonotic diseases worldwide (Sudhi Ranjan Garg, 2014). Although half of the world's population lives in endemic areas, more than 95% of the world's fatal cases of rabies occur in Africa and Asia, which are the continents with the highest risk of human mortality (OIE, 2015).

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