Perinatal infections with feline panleukopenia virus (FPV) have long been known to be associated with cerebellar hypoplasia in kittens due to productive infection of dividing neuroblasts. FPV, like other parvoviruses, requires dividing cells to replicate which explains the usual tropism of the virus for the digestive tract, lymphoid tissues and bone marrow in older animals. In this study, the necropsy and histopathological analyses of a series of 28 cats which died from parvovirus infection in 2013 were performed. Infections were confirmed by real time PCR and immunohistochemistry in several organs. Strikingly, while none of these cats showed cerebellar atrophy or cerebellar positive immunostaining, some of them, including one adult, showed a bright positive immunostaining for viral antigens in cerebral neurons (diencephalon). Furthermore, infected neurons were negative by immunostaining for p27Kip1, a cell cycle regulatory protein, while neighboring, uninfected, neurons were positive, suggesting a possible re-entry of infected neurons into the mitotic cycle. Next-Generation Sequencing and PCR analyses showed that the virus infecting cat brains was FPV and presented a unique substitution in NS1 protein sequence. Given the role played by this protein in the control of cell cycle and apoptosis in other parvoviral species, it is tempting to hypothesize that a cause-to-effect between this NS1 mutation and the capacity of this FPV strain to infect neurons in adult cats might exist. This study provides the first evidence of infection of cerebral neurons by feline panleukopenia virus in cats, including an adult. A possible re-entry into the cell cycle by infected neurons has been observed. A mutation in the NS1 protein sequence of the FPV strain involved could be related to its unusual cellular tropism. Further research is needed to clarify this point.

Influenza A virus remains a major public health problem. Mouse models have been widely used to study influenza infection in mammals. DBA/2J and C57BL/6J represent extremes in terms of susceptibility to influenza A infection among inbred laboratory mouse strains. Several studies focused specifically on the factors responsible for the susceptibility of DBA/2J or the resistance of C57BL/6J and resulted in impressive lists of candidate genes or factors over- or underexpressed in one of the strains. We adopted a different phenotypical approach to identify the critical steps of the infection process accounting for the differences between DBA/2J and C57BL/6J strains. We concluded that both a dysfunction of alveolar macrophages and an increased permissivity of respiratory cells rendered DBA/2J more susceptible to influenza infection.

N-acetylcysteine (NAC) has been recently proposed as an adjuvant therapeutic drug for influenza pneumonia in humans. This proposal is based on its ability to restrict influenza virus replication in vitro and to attenuate the severity of the disease in mouse models. Although available studies were made with different viruses (human and avian), published information related to the anti-influenza spectrum of NAC is scarce. In this study, we show that NAC is unable to alter the course of a fatal influenza pneumonia caused by inoculation of a murinized swine H1N1 influenza virus. NAC was indeed able to inhibit the swine virus in vitro but far less than reported for other strains. Therefore, susceptibility of influenza viruses to NAC appears to be strain-dependent, suggesting that it cannot be considered as a universal treatment for influenza pneumonia.

The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of several risk/protective factors and predictors on the prevalence of feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV) and feline leukaemia virus (FeLV) infections in 302 stray cats captured during a trap‐neuter‐release programme in a mixed urban‐rural area from Belgium, from 2010 to 2012. The impact of selective removal of FIV‐positive cats on the apparent prevalence in the remaining population over this three‐year period was also assessed. The seroprevalences over three years were 18.8 per cent for FIV and 0.7 per cent for FeLV. For FIV, the seroprevalence decreased significantly from the first year of the programme (2010; 30.5 per cent) to the last (2012; 13.1 per cent). Sex (male) and age (adult and old cats) were risk factors, while the year of sampling (years 2011 and 2012) was a protective factor. Age, sex and location were the most relevant predictors of FIV status. The data presented in this study revealed a very high FIV seroprevalence in Belgian stray cats, while FeLV was almost absent. The selective removal of positive cats had a drastic effect on the FIV seroprevalence in the remaining cat population.

N-acetylcysteine (NAC) is a mucolytic drug commonly used as an adjuvant therapy in patients with respiratory conditions associated with excessive mucus production. NAC also has antioxidant activities which proved useful in the management of oxidative stress. These antioxidant capacities of NAC are mostly indirect, via a pro-glutathione effect where NAC provides L-cysteine residues required for glutathione synthesis. This activity is thought to be the basis of the protective effect of NAC administration in influenza patients and in mouse models of the disease. NAC was shown to limit lung inflammation, damage associated with the virus, and limit viral growth, at least in vitro. However, the antiviral activity was highly variable depending on the influenza A strain. The reasons for these inter-strain variations are still unknown but might be related to the level of NF-κB activation required for the virus to achieve its infectious cycle.

The analysis of samples from the genital tract of slaughtered cattle allows for the assessment of the impact of infections on reproduction. Among the agents involved, Chlamydiaceae are known for their role in these diseases.The objective of this study was to investigate the presence of Chlamydia abortus in the reproductive tract of cull cows and to explore the potential correlation between the presence of apparent morphological lesions in the genital tract and the carriage of the bacteria.Macroscopic examination of 405 female bovine genital tracts collected from abattoirs in eastern Algeria revealed a 7.16% prevalence of apparent morphological abnormalities, with ovarian lesions predominating. Real-time PCR analysis of tissue samples taken from the genital tract of cows aimed at detecting the DNA of Chlamydia abortus targeting a fragment of the ompA gene, revealed no trace of the bacterium in the tissue samples analysed.The results suggest the occasional presence of the bacterium in the genital tract of female cattle and call into question the hypothesis that cows act as a reservoir for Chlamydia abortus.