Alfredo Quiroga

BSC 1005
April 19, 2015

Critical Thinking #6: Disease Ecology

1. Dominguez, M., Gache, K., Touratier, A., Perrin, J., Fediaevsky, A.,
Collin, E., & ... Calavas, D. (2014). Spread and impact of the
Schmallenberg virus epidemic in France in 2012-2013. BMC
Veterinary Research, 10(1), 1-23. doi:10.1186/s12917-014-0248x
2. This peer-reviewed article is an article reporting the results of an
experiment. It is reporting the results of the Schmallenberg virus
epidemic in France.
3. The main question the authors are asking is what is the spread
and impact of the Schmallenberg virus epidemic on France? How
does it affect the ruminants now and the future ruminants.
4. The authors predicted their results due to the close resemblance
to the analogy of the Akabane virus. Not much is known about
the Schmallenberg virus so they predicted that the vulnerable
stage of gestation for the Schmallenberg virus was during the
second month of gestation for small ruminants and the sixth
month of gestation for cattle. During these periods it can receive
an infection that leads to Arthrogryposis hydranencephaly
syndrome (AHS).

5. In order to study this, they had two stages in their methods to

see if their predicted results were right. The first stage was
Schmallenberg virus emergence surveillance. There was a
maximum level of alert and mandatory reporting of AHS in
ruminants and in herds. If this was found they would study the
herd and depicit which gestation period the ruminants were in
and who displayed AHS. The second stage was Schmallenberg
virus surveillance system. There was a decreased level of alert
and voluntary reporting of AHS in ruminants. This made the
study have a high rate of reports during the first few months but
it decreased as the study went on.
6. The most important conclusion that came out of this study is that
Schmallenberg virus is most present in cattle herds with 70% of
cattle herds having the virus. Not only that, the age distinction
for the cattles who had the Schmallenberg virus was just as they
concluded. It was most reported during those two terms of
gestation.
7. The authors didnt suggest any real world applications.
8. Yes the authors did suggest future studies on this topic. The
author suggested that this virus be studied more because it has
only been studied in Europe. To see the ability for this virus to get
passed on we would have to study if this virus has impacted any
other territories in the world and what has the affect been on the
herds in the areas theyve affected.

9. Yes the tables are easy to read and draw conclusions about. My
table just shows numbers of infected and non-infected and then
the percentages. This shows that cattle are most likely to get
infected, then sheep, and lastly goat.
10.
One suggestion to improve this journal article would be to
have a graph that demonstrates the connection between the
Schmallenberg virus and Arthrogryposis hydranencephaly
syndrome. They say in the beginning of the article that both
come from the same family but if they add a detailed graph that
demonstrates the effects of the Schmallenberg virus and the
effects of Arthrogryposis hydranencephaly syndrome then we
can see the effect the virus has on the ruminants and what it can
lead to if it causes this syndrome.