A comparison of the epidemiology of bovine ephemeral fever in South Korea and south‐western Japan

Abstract

Bovine ephemeral fever (BEF) outbreaks were investigated in South Korea and Japan from 1953 to 1991, retrospectively. The epidemics occurred contemporaneously several times; particularly, those of 1988 and 1991. The initial outbreaks in the Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan, in 1988 and 1991 occurred about 1 month after those in Korea. Meteorological analysis showed that a low-level jet stream through Jeonnam Province in Korea struck the Fukuoka Prefecture of Japan during the epidemic. The BEF epidemics of Fukuoka Prefecture may have originated from infected vectors carried on the low-level jet stream.

Relationships of bovine ephemeral fever epizootics to population immunity and virus variation

“…(A) Frequency of the occurrence categorized by the mean neutralizing antibody titers of the districts; (B) frequency of occurrence categorized by percentages of the sampled animals with titer lower than 1:32. Shirakawa et al (1994) that the BEF outbreaks in Fukuoka, Japan in 1988 and 1991 may have originated from viral strains that were involved in the earlier Korean outbreaks. Moreover, three BEF epizootics in Taiwan in the last century, namely the 1967, 1983-1984, and 1989-1990 epizootics, roughly coordinated with the 1966, 1983, and 1987 Chinese epizootics that ruined cattle in many provinces (Zheng and Qiu, 2012).…”

Resurgence of bovine ephemeral fever in mainland Japan in 2015 after a 23-year absence

“…Although previous BEF epizootics spread widely in mainland Japan [7, 12, 15], the areas affected in 2015 were quite limited. The affected area in the mainland region did not have a high density of cattle herds.…”

“…This finding suggested that the origin of the BEFV was the same in two epizootic areas that were 100 km apart. The long-distance transport of infected vectors by wind has been considered for past BEF epizootics [2, 5, 6, 12, 15]. Estimation of the potential source of the infected vectors in the 2015 epizootic should be conducted by using atmospheric dispersal models in the future.…”

“…In Japan, epidemics of BEF have occurred repeatedly since the 1950s [15]. During the largest outbreaks in 1949–1951, a total of 770,000 cases and over 10,000 deaths were reported [7].…”

Detection of Culicoides brevitarsis Activity in Kyushu

“…Previous reports indicated that outbreaks of ruminant arboviral diseases frequently occurred in this region, and then spread to areas further east and north [5,6,13,16]. Therefore, better knowledge of the distribution and seasonal abundance of vectors and the sensitive detection of arbovirus incursion in Kyushu are needed.…”