Schmallenberg virus, a novel emerging orthobunyavirus : pathogenesis and preventive measures

The insect-transmitted Schmallenberg virus (SBV) emerged in late 2011 in Central Europe. In ruminants of most age groups, SBV induces a short-lived viremia, sometimes associated with a mild, transient disease. When pregnant animals are infected during a critical phase of gestation, SBV often infects also the fetus leading to variable patterns of infected fetal organs and occasionally to abortion and/or fetal malformation. Different candidate vaccines from classical inactivated or live-attenuated to subunit, DNA-mediated and viral vector vaccines were developed and successfully tested.<eng>