Members of the genus Brucella are facultative intracellular bacteria and cause brucellosis, a chronic disease in humans and abortion in animals. In this study, we tested sera for brucellosis of 15 Hanwoo farms in the western part of Gyeong-buk province, resulting 5 farms were brucellosis positive in 2008. We collected blood from 277 heads in the brucellosis positive 5 farms, and performed serological diagnosis, brucella positive cattle which had shown higher than 200 antibody titer in tube agglutination test were slaughtered, supramammary lymph nodes were collected, and Brucella spp. wild type isolation and identification were performed. From these results, 15 of Brucella spp. wild type strains were isolated and all strains were identified as B. abortus biotype 1 by biological and molecular analysis. In the antimicrobial susceptibility test, all 15 strains had a similar susceptibility and resistance pattern. This study may be useful for bacteriological and epidemiological understanding of cattle brucellosis in Korea.

Fifty young calves, about five to six months old purchased from nation-wide were investigated with the prevelance of neutralizing antibody (Ab) of infectious bovine rhinotracheitis virus (IBRV), parainfluenza 3 virus (PI₃V), bovine viral diarrhea virus (BVDV) and bovine respiratory syncytial virus (BRSV). The positive detection ratio of neutralizing Ab against IBRV was only 3% and two of positive samples showed low antibody titer (below 2). Ab against BRSV showed 48% of positive ratio and among 24 positive samples, antibody titer of 23 samples were below 3. But in the case of BVDV, 68% of samples were positive and 23 samples appeared to possess high antibody titer, above 4 and the antibody titer of five samples were above 8. The highest positive result came from PI₃V. The positive ratio in the samples investigated in this study was 72%, but the antibody titer of positive samples were generally below 3 (77.8% in positive samples).

Post-weaning multisystemic wasting syndrome (PMWS) is a new emerging disease affecting nursery and growing pigs in worldwide. Porcine circovirus type 2 (PCV-2) is a most important pathogen associated with PMWS. This study was carried out to investigate the pathological changes in the pancreas of pigs diagnosed as PMWS. To detect the PCV-2 antigen and nucleic acid in the tissue, immunohistochemistry and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was conducted, respectively. 24 pigs of 4-10 weeks old showed clinical signs of PMWS such as chronic wasting, respiratory distress and diarrhea were examined. Histopathologically, interstitial and periductular mononuclear cells infiltration were observed in pancreas. Multifocal to diffuse necrosis of acinar tissues or necrotizing to granulomatous pancreastitis with numerous syncytial cells infiltration were examined in severe cases. PCV-2 nucleic acid was detected from all tested pancreas using PCR. The PCV-2 antigen in 12 pancreas sections was detected by immunohistochemical staining. PCV-2 has a tropism for vascular endothelial cells and infiltrated macrophages. Although gross lesions are uncommon in the pancreas of pigs with PMWS, histopathological changes and the presence of PCV-2 in this tissue may be related to clinical signs associated with digestive disorders.