Natural Borna Disease in Domestic Animals Others than Horses and Sheep

Abstract

Summary In 24 cats (Uppsala, Sweden) with neurological signs of “staggering disease” and typical neuropathology, 44% had Borna disease virus (BDV)‐specific antibodies. In 173 cat sera (Berlin, Germany) of animals with unknown record, 7% were BDV positive. Out of 24 cats with undefined neurological disorders, 13% were BDV positive. Similarities in staggering disease of cats and Borna disease of horses and sheep suggest related etiological agents.

Epidemiology and host spectrum of Borna disease virus infections

“…The incidence of BD in horses and sheep peaks in March to June and in cats between December and March, although cases in all of these species occur all year round (reviewed by Dürrwald & Ludwig, 1997;Dürrwald et al, 2006a;Lundgren et al, 1993). The temporal appearance of cases is strictly associated with the incubation period.…”

“…Later, natural infections with BDV or a BDV-like agent were also verified in zoo animals [monkey, sloth, llama, alpaca, pygmy hippopotamus (Jacobsen et al, 2010;reviewed by Dürrwald et al, 2006a;Ikuta et al, 2002); goat, deer (reviewed by Dürrwald & Ludwig, 1997); sheep (Metzler et al, 1976); rabbit (Metzler et al, 1978); cat (Lundgren et al, 1993); cow (Caplazi et al, 1994); human (de La Torre et al, 1996); dog (Weissenböck Journal of General Virology 94 et al, 1998); lynx (Degiorgis et al, 2000); and, recently, the shrew (Hilbe et al, 2006)]. Evidence also exists of infections in ostrich (Malkinson et al, 1995), fox (Dauphin et al, 2001), mallard and jackdaw (Berg et al, 2001), wild voles (Kinnunen et al, 2007), macaque (Hagiwara et al, 2008) and raccoon (Hagiwara et al, 2009).…”

“…Animal Borna disease (BD) has classically been described as a chronic, progressive meningoencephalomyelitis, causing both neurological and behavioural symptoms in horses and sheep (reviewed by Dürrwald & Ludwig, 1997). During recent decades, milder manifestations and a wider host range have also been seen (Lundgren et al, 1993;Berg et al, 1999; reviewed by Rott & Becht, 1995). In humans, numerous neuropsychiatric entities have been reported to be associated with potential markers of BDV infection, but the evidence remains inconclusive and the true prevalence and causative role are questionable (reviewed by Planz et al, 2002;Lipkin et al 2011).…”

Demonstration of Borna disease virus RNA in peripheral blood mononuclear cells from healthy horses in Japan

“…In addition, the prevalence of BDV infection in FeLV-and/or FIV-seropositive cats was similar to that in the virus-free cats. In contrast, the clinical manifestations of staggering disease in Swedish cats are reported to be strikingly similar to those of borna disease in horses, as determined by serological assay (16). Although there are no reports of such neurological disorders in Japanese cats, the prevalence of BDV RNA and seroprevalence were 13.3 and 8.4%, respectively.…”

“…Serological and/or immunohistochemical screening yielded no specific correlation with feline infectious peritonitis virus, feline leukemia virus (FeLV), feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV), pseudorabies virus, tick-borne encephalitis virus, canine distemper virus, Borrelia burgdorferi, or Toxoplasma gondii (15). An extremely high seroprevalence of BDV (44%) has been identified in cats with neurological signs of staggering disease in Sweden (16,17), although about 7% seroprevalence has been found among randomly selected cats in Germany (16). Despite the striking serological evidence for a BDV infection in cats with staggering disease, all attempts to demonstrate BDV, viral antigen, or viral RNA in the brains failed (22).…”