Abortion causes significant economic losses in the sheep industry. Determination of the aetiology is important in dealing with abortions. The present study was aimed to identify selected important bacterial pathogens in the abortion cases of sheep. A total of 113 samples (105 aborted sheep foetuses, 4 placentas, and 4 vaginal swab samples) from 85 different sheep flocks were examined by real-time PCR (RT-PCR) regarding Chlamydia (C.) spp., C. abortus, Brucella (B.) spp., B. melitensis, Salmonella (S.) spp., S. Abortusovis, Coxiella (C.) burnetii, Listeria (L.) spp., L. monocytogenes, and Campylobacter spp. All cases that were found to be positive for bacterial agents by RT-PCR, were examined pathologically. Tissue samples of foetuses that were found to be positive for B. melitensis and L. monocytogenes by RT-PCR were also investigated immunohistochemically. A total of 35 (30.9%) samples were found to be positive by RT-PCR, with 15 (42.8%), 9 (25.7%), 5 (14.2%), 4 (11.4%), 1 (2.8%), and 1 (2.8%) of them being identified as C. abortus, B. melitensis, S. Abortusovis, C. burnetii, L. monocytogenes and Campylobacter spp., respectively. The presence of the antigen was confirmed also immunohistochemically in the cases with B. melitensis and L. monocytogenes. As a consequence, C. abortus was found to cause the highest rate of sheep abortion cases, which should be taken into account when implementing control measures in epidemiological investigations.

Canine distemper virus (CDV) is a highly contagious virus that infects a wide variety of animals of carnivore species and may cause manifestations from subclinical infection to fatal disease. In this study, dogs clinically suspected having distemper were examined by reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), histopathology and immuno-histochemistry. By histopathological examination, characteristic intracytoplasmic and/or intranuclear inclusion bodies were observed in the lung, stomach, small intestine, liver, kidney, spleen and central nervous system. Interstitial and broncho-interstitial pneumonia, gastroenteritis and encephalitis were revealed. CDV antigens were detected in all tissues with characteristic histopathological findings. The antigens were more abundant in the bronchial and bronchiolar epithelium and in the syntitial cells. Phylogenetic analyses were performed using the PCR-amplified partial sequences of the genes encoding the viral heamagglutinin and fusion proteins. The phylogenetic trees showed that the newly determined sequences were diverse and clustered within different lineages of the European or the Arctic strains.