An online survey of llama and alpaca owners was used to collect data on the population, husbandry, feeding, management measures and health problems. A total of 255 questionnaires were evaluated. In total, 55.1% of the owners had started keeping South American camelids within the last six years. The majority managed small farms with fewer than 15 animals (66.4% of 250 farms). More than half of the participants stated that they kept the camelids as hobby animals (64.3%), although they used them for wool production (55.7%) and/or for breeding (51.8%). Vaccination and deworming were carried out on more than 80% of the farms. The most common diseases occurring on the farms were endo- and ectoparasites. A total of 55.3% of the owners estimated their own knowledge of South American camelids as good, 14.5% as very good. In contrast, more than half of the owners agreed little or not at all with the statement that veterinarians generally have sufficient knowledge about South American camelids. Further research is needed to include veterinarians’ perspectives and thus optimise animal husbandry.

Atypical porcine pestivirus (APPV) is a widely distributed pathogen causing congenital tremor (CT) in piglets. So far, no data are available regarding the humoral immune response against APPV. In this study, piglets and their sows from an affected herd were tested longitudinally for viral genome and antibodies. APPV genome was detected in the majority of the piglets (14/15) from CT affected litters. Transient infection of gilts was observed. Kinetics of E^rns- and E2-specific antibodies and their neutralizing capacity were determined by recently (E^rns) and newly (E2) developed antibody ELISAs and virus neutralization assays. Putative maternally derived antibodies (MDA) were detected in most piglets, but displayed only low to moderate neutralizing capacity (ND₅₀ ≤ 112). Horizontal APPV transmission occurred when uninfected and infected piglets were mingled on the flat deck. Horizontally infected piglets were clinically inapparent and showed only transient viremia with subsequently consistently high E2 antibody levels. For piglets from CT affected litters, significantly lower neutralizing antibody titers were observed. Results indicate that E2 represents the main target of neutralizing antibodies. Characterization of the humoral immune response against APPV will help to provide valuable serological diagnosis, to understand the epidemiology of this novel pathogen, and to implement tailored prevention strategies.

The hydrothermal transformation of the heteroatom polyoxovanadate compound {Ni(en)₃}₃[V₁₅Sb₆O₄₂(H₂O)]·≈15H₂O (en = ethylenediamine) in water into [{Ni(en)₂}₂V₁₄Sb₈O₄₂]·5.5H₂O was investigated by in situ XRD experiments at different temperatures. First, the precursor undergoes very fast amorphization or dissolution, and an induction period is observed that depends on the reaction temperature. Crystal growth of the product is completed within 3 h, while higher temperatures lead to accelerated reaction progress. Evaluation of the kinetics showed that heterogeneous nucleation is the rate‐limiting step of the reaction. The activation energies for nucleation and crystal growth are very low compared to data reported in the literature for several other chemical systems.