Serologic evidence for etiologic role of Akabane virus in epizootic abortion-arthrogryposis-hydranencephaly in cattle in Japan, 1972?1974

Abstract

In the outbreak of abortions, premature births, stillbirths and congenital arthrogryposis-hydranencephaly (AH) syndrome in Japan during the summer through winter of 1972-73 and 1973-74, precolostral sera from calves with congenital AH syndrome and normal calves were tested for neutralizing antibodies against some arboviruses, i.e. Akabane, Aino, Getah and Japanese encephalitis (JE) viruses. The incidence of antibody for Akabane virus was very high in calves with AH syndrome (49/59 or 83 per cent) as compared with normal calves (3/11 or 27 per cent), indicating an intimate correlation between the AH syndrome and precolostral anti-Akabane antibody. Three stillborn fetuses also had anti-Akabane antibody. On the other hand, no precolostral serum antibody for the other viruses was detected in any of the calves tested. The mothers of these calves, normal and with AH syndrome, had anti-Akabane antibody in high percentages (44/52 or 85 per cent and 7/8 or 88 per cent), whereas a few of the mothers had antibodies for the other viruses. Serological surveys indicate a wide dissemination of Akabane virus in epizootic areas during the summer months of 1972 and 1973. Thus, 8 groups of cattle in epizootic areas showed high rates of seroconversion for Akabane virus during the 1972 or 1973 summer. Very high incidences of Akabane antibody were shown among cattle in epizootic areas but extremely low incidences in near-by non-epizootic areas. The geographic distribution of anti-Akabane antibody among cattle throughout the country in the 1973 spring generally agrees with the pattern of case distribution in the 1972--73 outbreak. All these findings strongly suggest that Akabane virus is the etiological agent of the outbreaks. Further studies are needed, particularly isolation of the virus, demonstration of infection with the virus in lesions by immunofluroescence and production of intrauterine infection by experimental infection of pregnant cows.

A study of the host range and distribution of antibody to Akabane virus (genus bunyavirus, family Bunyaviridae) in Kenya

“…Another virus strain related to Akabane was isolated from culicoides midges in South Africa (Theodoridis et al 1979). Akabane virus has been shown to be the cause of abortions and a congenital arthrogryposis hydranencephaly syndrome in cattle and sheep in Japan, Australia and Israel (Kurogi et al 1975;Markusfeld & Mayer, 1971;Hartley et al 1975). This syndrome has not been described in Africa other than as a consequence of the vaccination of sheep with an attenuated Rift Valley fever vaccine (F. G. Davies, unpublished data;Coetzer & Barnard, 1977).…”

The Incidence of Antibody to Aino Virus in Animals and Humans in Fukuoka

“…Akabane virus was strongly suggested to be the etiologic agent of epizootic abortion and congenital AH syndrome in cattle (Miura et al, 1974;Kurogi et al ., 1975). Incidence of antibody to Akabane virus in normal calves and cows is not different from our data on Aino virus.…”

“…Miura et al (1974) and Kurogi et al (1975) studied the incidence of neutralizing antibody to Aino virus in calves and cows with congenital arthrogryposis-hydranencephaly (AH) syndrome and reported that 2 of 20 (Miura et al, 1978) and 2 of 52 (Kurogi et al, 1975) calves had antibody to the virus.…”

Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism Analysis of Akabane Virus Nucleoprotein Gene.

“…AKA virus has been shown to cause abnormal deliveries, such as abortion, stillbirth, premature birth and deformities among cattle, sheep and goats [8,16]. The epizootics of congenital arthrogryposis-hydranencephaly (AH) syndrome caused by AKA virus were observed in 1972-1974 [11,12]. Although the decennial occurrences of AH syndrome had been reported in Japan until a vaccine was developed, sporadic outbreaks of the disease have been observed in the southern part of Japan at the present time.…”