Dirk Soike

State Office for Occupational Safety, Consumer Protection and Health, Brandenburg, Germany · Animal disease control

As a re-emerging disease, HS was detected in summer 2010 in fallow deer, cattle and pigs for the first time in Germany since 1986.

Hemorrhagic septicaemia, an acute disease caused by P multocida capsular type B which is rarely detected in Europe, caused considerable losses in fallow deer, cattle and pigs within a region along the border of the federal states Brandenburg and Saxony-Anhalt in the summer of 2010. Clinical appearances and diagnostic findings are presented and poss...

Liver samples of psittacine birds with a histological suspicion of an adenovirus infection, confirmed by electron microscopy examination, were subjected to virus isolation attempts using a heterologous cell culture system and a homologous cell culture system in the form of chicken embryo liver cells and psittacine embryo fibroblasts, respectively....

The purpose of this study was to investigate the aetiology of the pinching off syndrome (POS), a generalized feather abnormality affecting free-living nestling of the white-tailed sea eagle (Haliaeetus albicilla) in Europe. For the first time, extensive clinical, haematological, biochemical, virological, bacteriological, nutritional, histopathologi...

It has now been established that circovirus infection is common in farmed geese, but little is known about the clinicopathological significance of such infections. Ten clinically diseased geese suspected of being infected by circovirus were studied by in situ hybridization using a goose circovirus DNA probe. Circovirus DNA was demonstrated in the b...

The genome of Duck circovirus (DuCV) is circular and 1996 nts in size. Two major open reading frames were identified, encoding the replicase (V1) and the capsid protein (C1). A stem-loop structure comprising the nonamer 5'-TATTATTAC, conserved in all circo-, nano- and geminiviruses, was found. Unique to DuCV, the region between the 3'-ends of the r...

Emerging viruses – a challenge to diagnostic Electron Microscopy - Volume 9 Issue S03 - Dirk Soike

This study describes a method to detect in vivo Pigeon circovirus (PiCV, also called Columbid circovirus, CoCV) identified recently. Blood samples of healthy and diseased pigeons were investigated. DNA was isolated from a drop of blood spotted and dried on filter paper. A nested PCR using two primer pairs from the cap gene was performed to detect P...

A systematic study was performed to examine the frequency of columbid circovirus (CoCV) infection in diseased young pigeons submitted for necropsy and its relevance to pigeon health. Existing diagnostic methods were compared. Among 176 diseased young pigeons examined, CoCV infection was detected in 83 cases using negative contrast electron microsco...

The genomes of novel circoviruses from goose and pigeon, which were isolated using degenerate primer and inverse primer PCR methods, were cloned and sequenced. Comparative nucleotide (nt) sequence analyses showed that the goose circovirus (GCV) and pigeon circovirus (PiCV) possessed genomes which were 1821 and 2037 or 2036 nt, respectively, and whi...

The complete nucleotide sequence of columbid circovirus (CoCV) isolated from pigeons is described. CoCV was amplified using a consensus primer PCR approach directed against conserved sequences within the rep genes of vertebrate circoviruses. The genome of CoCV is circular and 2037 nt in size. It displays 55% homology to the genome of psittacine bea...

Postweaning multisystemic wasting syndrome (PMWS), a recently described infectious disease in pigs, has been diagnosed in Northern America, Spain, France, Northern Ireland, Denmark and Germany so far. Clinical signs appear in the postweaning period. Weight loss and respiratory disorders characterize the chronic course of the disease. Generalized ly...

The new isolated circovirus variant PCV-2 is discussed to be the etiological agent of a new emerging swine disease with a variable morbidity and high lethality, postweaning multisystemic wasting syndrome (PMWS). PMWS has been diagnosed in North America and West Europe. Clinical signs include dyspnea, loss of weight, lymph node enlargement and lymph...

Diagnostic investigations in a large commercial flock of geese with a history of increased losses and runting, lead to the negative contrast electron microscopic detection of circovirus-like viruses in the lymphoreticular tissue in eight of nine selected geese with growth retardation. With the exception of a mild cloudiness of some air sacs, macros...

Diagnostic investigations were carried out in a fatal disease of several African Grey Parrots (Psittacus erithacus) and Cape Parrots (Poicephalus robustus) in a large breeding plant. Electron microscopically examination of liver and intestine, the organs with the most prominent pathomorphological changes, regularly revealed adenoviruses. Necrotizin...

Diagnostic investigations were carried out in a fatal disease of several African Grey Parrots (Psittacus erithacus) and Cape Parrots (Poicephalus robustus) in a large breeding plant. Electron microscopically examination of liver and intestine, the organs with the most prominent pathomorphological changes, regularly revealed adenoviruses. Necrotizin...

A comparative histopathological and electron microscopic study based on selected skeletal muscle in layer-type and meat-type chickens was carried out to detect possible effects of selection for rapid growth and increased muscularity on muscle health. Disseminated fibre degeneration and other myopathological changes occurred more frequently in muscl...

Comparative histochemical and morphometric examinations of layer-type and meat-type chickens were carried out to detect the effects of growth selection on metabolic and structural characteristics of skeletal muscle. A combined histochemical method (NADHOX/mATPase) was used to compare the fibre type profiles of the supracoracoideus muscle in layer-t...

The first detection of circovirus infection in pigeons in Germany is described. The existing experiences with this still little known pigeon disease are summarized and similarities to circovirus infections in other species are shown.