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Infections of humans with the tick-borne Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever virus (CCHFV) can cause a severe hemorrhagic fever with case fatality rates of up to 80%. Most humans are infected by tick bite, crushing infected ticks by hand or by unprotected contact with blood of viremic mammals. Next to the notified human CCHF cases, the real distribution and the situation in animals in Southeastern Europe are nearly unknown. Since domestic ruminants play a crucial role in the life cycle of the vector ticks and the transmission and amplification of the virus, the antibody prevalence in those animals is a good indicator for the presence of CCHFV in a region. Therefore, the prevalence of CCHFV-specific antibodies was investigated in domestic ruminants of different regions of Bulgaria and Turkey. Sera of 1165 ruminants were tested and a prevalence of up to 90% was identified. The overall prevalence for Bulgaria was 26% and for Turkey 57%. The results highlight the risk of human infections in those regions and the importance of the investigation of the prevalence in animals for identification of risk areas. This article provides a unique overview about published CCHFV antibody prevalence in animals in comparison to human incidences in different areas of Bulgaria and Turkey. Although it will help to complete the understanding of the CCHFV situation in these countries, it also demonstrates the lack of unpublished and published data even in these highly endemic areas.

Vet. Med., 19, No 4,[263][264][265][266][267][268][269][270][271][272][273] Malignant catarrhal fever (MCF) is a fatal disease syndrome responsible for mortality in domestic and wild ruminant species. MCF is caused by gammaherpesviruses -the ovine herpesvirus type 2 causing sheep-associated malignant catarrhal fever (SA-MCF) and alcelaphine herpesvirus type 1 known as wildebeest-associated MCF (WA-MCF). The present study described the cultural peculiarities of MCF virus isolated from different samples originated from dead and alive wild animals from the Sofia Zoo. MDBK, EBTR, RK, MA-104 and VERO cell cultures were used for the isolation of MCF virus. The best growth of viruses was observed on MDBK cell cultures. The CPE was characterised with forming of the syncytium and destruction of the monolayers 2-3 days after the virus adaptation. The CPE was different for obtained isolates. The isolates from gaur formed a bigger cell syncytium than that in the cell cultures infected with buffy coat from bisons where a cell syncytium of smaller size and shape was observed. The virus identification was performed by biochemical methods and PCR.

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Immunohistochemical investigations were carried out to determine organ and cellular localization of the rabbit haemorrhagic disease viral antigen (RHDVA). It was found in certain parenchymal liver cells near the interlobular septs and in some macrophages and pseudoeosinophils of all studied organs and blood. Whereas in morphologically preserved hepatocytes and macrophages the RHDVA accumulated in the nuclei, in cells with disintegrated nuclei it was distributed throughout the cytoplasm.