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African swine fever virus (ASFV) infection in adult Ornithodoros porcinusWalton (1962) ticks collected from warthog burrows in southern and East Africa was assessed using a duplex genomic amplification approach that is informative with respect to the invertebrate host species and infecting sylvatic cycle virus. DNA extracted from individual ticks was used as template for simultaneous amplification of a C-terminal 478 bp ASFV p72 gene region and a ~313 bp fragment of the tick mitochondrial 16S rRNA gene, under optimised reaction conditions. Within-warthog-burrow infection rates ranged from 0 to 43 % using this approach, whilst phylogenetic analysis of 16S gene sequences revealed the presence of three geographically discrete O. porcinus

Sporadic outbreaks of aflatoxicosis occur in dogs when they consume contaminated dog food. During 2011, low-cost brands of pelleted dog food were contaminated with very high concentrations of aflatoxins. Approximately 100 dogs were presented to the Onderstepoort Veterinary Academic Hospital. Clinically, the dogs were depressed to collapsed and icteric, with haematemesis, melaena and haematochezia. The most common pathological findings were icterus, gastro-enterorrhagia and hepatosis. On histopathological examination, fatty hepatosis and bile duct proliferation were observed. A consistent, very characteristic finding was the presence of a blue-grey granular material within the bile ducts. A total of 124 samples of the dog food fed to the affected dogs was analysed to determine aflatoxin concentrations. Concentrations ranged from below the limit of quantification (< 5 μg/kg) to 4946 μg/kg and six samples were submitted to determine the ratio of aflatoxins in the feed. It is estimated that well over 220 dogs died in the Gauteng Province of South Africa as a result of this aflatoxin outbreak.

African horse sickness (AHS) is a fatal vector transmitted viral disease of horses caused by the African horse sickness virus (AHSV). This disease is characterised by circulatory and respiratory failure, resulting from vascular endothelial injury affecting many organs. The susceptibility of dogs to AHS has been demonstrated in the past following experimental infection through consumption of infected horse meat. Thirty three clinical cases of AHS in dogs (cAHS) have been documented, without a history of ingesting infected horse meat, over a period of 12 years. The clinical cases included in this study presented with a history of acute respiratory distress syndrome or sudden death. The macroscopic and histological changes were mostly characterised by acute interstitial pneumonia, serofibrinous pleuritis and mediastinal oedema. Confirmation of cAHS was obtained by AHS specific NS4 antibody immunohistochemistry and/or AHSV specific duplex real time RT-quantitative PCR. Here, we document the clinical and postmortem diagnostic features of confirmed cAHS cases with no history of ingestion of AHS infected horse meat.