The Past, Present and Future of Three-Day Sickness with Epidemiological Data

Abstract

Three-day sickness, also known as Bovine Ephemeral Fever (BEF), is an arboviral-derived disease of cattle and water buffaloes progressing with acute, rapidly developing polyphasic fever and showing symptoms such as stiffness of muscle tissue and excessive salivation. While clinical findings generally continue between 1-3 days, it has importance due to a sudden and high decrease in milk yield in cows during lactation, infertility, loss of condition, treatment costs and sometimes serious economic losses due to death of sick animals. The possible spread mechanism is reported to be related to the inter-regional wind movement of Culicoides-type sandflies and various insect vectors and host feeding of these blood-fed vectors. The objective of this review is to provide information about the current situation of the three-day sickness in the light of current epidemiological data and to draw a perspective for the future.