Border disease-like clinical signs in sheep caused by a BVDV-2 type d

The present paper accounts for the study of an outbreak of abortions within a sheep herd over a span of three months. To this purpose, one of the aborted fetuses that tested positive for bovine viral diarrhoea virus (BVDV), specifically BVDV-2, was analysed by RT-qPCR. Afterwards, sera from all the animals in the herd were collected in order to perform serological and virological analyses. BVDV was detected in 42 of the lambs but none of the adult animals. Two of the positive samples were typed detecting BVDV-2 type d. In order to trace possible sources of infection, three neighbouring farms (a dairy cattle herd, a mixed cattle–sheep flock and a mixed sheep–goat flock) were also sampled, with the result showing the animals tested negative. Considering the similarity of clinical signs in sheep caused by BVDV and border disease virus, genetic analysis seems to be important to establish a differential diagnosis.