Until June 2004, thirty-eight scrapie cases with unusual features, designated Nor98, have been diagnosed in Norway. This study investigated the distribution of PrP genotypes among Nor98 cases, their flock-mates and a random sample of Norwegian slaughtered sheep. The PrP genotype distribution of Nor98 cases differed markedly from that of previous cases of classical scrapie. A leucine/phenylalanine polymorphism at codon 141 with hitherto unknown significance to scrapie was strongly associated with Nor98 cases. Twenty of 38 (52?6 %) cases were either homozygous or heterozygous for phenylalanine at codon 141. In contrast, this allele was present in only 10?5 % of the flock-mates and 4?5 % of the random sample of slaughtered sheep. Moreover, the H 154 allele was represented in 24 of 38 (63?2 %) of Nor98 cases, as opposed to 27?0 % of Nor98 flock-mates and 17?0 % of the slaughtered sheep.

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Abstract. During a period of 1.5 months, a newly established pig herd experienced a high number of mummifications and stillbirths, a high neonatal mortality rate, and many piglets with congenital tremors or hind leg ataxia. After clinical and histological investigations, the submitted animals were divided into 4 groups: mummified or stillborn (N 5 6), live born with myocarditis (N 5 5) (average age 22.8 days), live born without myocarditis (N 5 14) (average age 20.0 days), and control animals from a different herd (N 5 5) (newborn). Statistically significant differences were observed in the mean porcine circovirus 2 (PCV2) load among the 4 groups in the liver (P , 0.0001). The presence of PCV2 antigen within the myocardial lesions was confirmed by immunohistochemistry. A high load of PCV2 DNA was observed in myocardium, liver, and spleen from mummified or stillborn piglets (.1 3 10 7 copies per 500 ng DNA), lower in piglets with myocarditis (.1 3 10 5 copies per 500 ng DNA), and even further lower in pigs without myocarditis (,1 3 10 5 copies per 500 ng DNA), whereas no PCV2 DNA was detected in the control animals. Myocardium, liver, and spleen were well suited for routine testing of fetuses and young piglets by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction. Neither porcine parvovirus nor encepaholomyocarditis virus was detected. These results indicate that the PCV2 infection might have been of etiological importance for the fetal deaths and piglet mortality observed in this herd.

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