Case Report: Akabane Disease in Dairy Cattle

Abstract

A dairy cattle farm in Liuying, Tainan on 29 June 2015. The two-month-old calves in the farm were found with opisthotonus, lameness, paralysis and ataxia. The morbidity is approximately 1.1% and the mortality is 0%. In gross lesions, flat gyri, shallow sulci and meningeal vascular engorgement were seen. Histopathological examinations revealed non-suppurative lymphohistocytic encephalomyelitis and pachymeningitis with hemorrhage, lymphohistocytic perivascular cuffing, microgliosis and demyelination. Nucleic acid was extracted from Spinal cord, then amplified by reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction. A 709-base pair amplification product of S segments was detected and showed 99.9% homology to Akabane virus by nucleotide sequencing. Thus, according to the laboratory examination and analysis of the results, this case diagnosed with Akabane disease in dairy cattle.