Bovine neonatal pancytopenia

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The disease known as bovine neonatal pancytopenia (BNP) has occurred repeatedly in calves within the first four weeks of life, mainly in Germany, and has been described by some farmers as blood sweating . The symptoms appeared in the form of sudden bleeding for no apparent external reason: blood leaked through the skin in several places on the body ( hemorrhagic diathesis ). Some animals were bleeding from orifices and in their bowels. In addition, massive subcutaneous and intestinal bleeding was discovered. The animals perished a few hours after the symptoms appeared. Bone marrow damage and a lack of platelets were found in the affected animals . In addition, the number of leukocytes was greatly reduced.

Occurrence

The disease was first diagnosed in 2007. Up to 15 percent of the calves in affected herds became ill. Up to February 28, 2011, 3,000 cases were registered in Germany, and in Europe there are more than 4,500.

causes

Between the first appearance and 2011, numerous theories about the origin of the disease have been proposed. Because the animals do not infect each other, an infection with bacteria or viruses was excluded. Genetic defects are also considered unlikely: calves from three different breeds of cattle were affected. The controversial vaccination against bluetongue was also excluded as a cause.

It has been suggested that the disease is related to colostrum , which the calves receive in the first hours of life and supply them with maternal antibodies.

More recent findings from the Institute of Virology at the University of Giessen show that the antigen target for the disease-causing antibodies is the MHC class I complex (MHC I). The cause is contamination in vaccines that are produced on the basis of beef kidney cell lines. If calves now carry the same MHC-I, an immune reaction occurs with destruction of the blood-forming cell lines. In Europe, the vaccine was in 2010 PregSure BVD from Pfizer against Bovine Virus Diarrhea taken provisionally from the market because a relationship has been suggested to the vaccination of the dams, a year later in New Zealand after there first cases had occurred. Other BVD vaccines that were not made from bovine cell lines were unaffected and did not induce alloreactive antibodies. Officially, around four thousand calves in Germany died from the long-term effects of vaccination with PregSure.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b M. Bastian et al .: Bovine Neonatal Pancytopenia: is this alloimmune syndrome caused by vaccine-induced alloreactive antibodies? In: Vaccine. 2011 Jul 18; 29 (32): 5267-75. PMID 21605614
  2. ↑ http://www.ema.europa.eu/docs/de_DE/document_library/Referrals_document/Pregsure_BVD_78/WC500095958.pdf , p. 6
  3. ↑ a b c As if they were sweating blood . (News article) March 5, 2009, accessed March 23, 2009 .
  4. ↑ a b c d Philip Bethge: "Holy Mary, help us!" (News article) Spiegel online, March 23, 2009, accessed March 28, 2009 .
  5. ↑ Information from the Paul Ehrlich Institute
  6. ↑ Fabian Deutskens et al .: Vaccine-induced antibodies linked to Bovine Neonatal Pancytopenia (BNP) recognize cattle Major Histocompatibility Complex class I (MHC I). In: Veterinary Research 2011, 42:97 doi : 10.1186 / 1297-9716-42-97 .
  7. ↑ European Medicines Agency: EC decisions on referrals: Pregsure BVD. August 26, 2010 http://www.ema.europa.eu/docs/en_GB/document_library/Referrals_document/Pregsure_BVD_78/WC500095959.pdf
  8. ↑ http://www.promedmail.org/pls/apex/f?p=2400:1001:1382809520363550::NO::F2400_P1001_BACK_PAGE,F2400_P1001_PUB_MAIL_ID:1000,90014
  9. ↑ Cause of blood sweating in calves , BR of January 26, 2012