A-Z Index × Submit A-Z Index × Submit A-Z Index Search Dropdown × Submit Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Syndicate Emerging Infectious Disease journal ISSN: 1080-6059 Disclaimer: Early release articles are not considered as final versions. Any changes will be reflected in the online version in the month the article is officially released.
Since mid-June 2026, an acute, nonfatal syndrome characterized by high herd illness rate, reduced milk yield, diarrhea, fever, and lethargy has affected dairy cattle in southern Germany and Switzerland. After major viral pathogens were excluded, pan-Simbuvirus reverse transcription PCR detected an orthobunyavirus, confirmed by metagenomic sequencing, enabling recovery of a complete Shamonda virus genome.
Figure 1 . Location of cattle herds within Germany from which blood samples from affected cattle were subjected to metagenomic analysis and which tested positive for the novel Shamonda virus clade (blue dots)...
Since mid-June 2026, farmers and veterinarians in southern Germany and Switzerland have reported an acute disease in dairy cattle characterized by a marked decrease in milk production, diarrhea, fever, reduced activity, and occasionally mild respiratory signs for a short period. By the end of July, >100 affected farms had been reported to the local cattle health service in the German federal state of Baden-Württemberg. At the herd level, the within-herd illness rate was very high (up to 100%), but no fatalities were reported. Given the high environmental temperatures at the time, heat stress was initially considered to be at least a contributing factor. However, an infectious disease was suspected, and a vectorborne virus was thought likely because of the time of year and the rate at which the disease was spreading. Classical endemic and emerging viruses such as bluetongue virus, epizootic hemorrhagic disease virus, Schmallenberg virus (SBV), pestiviruses, bovine herpesvirus type 1, bovine ephemeral fever virus, West Nile virus, and Usutu virus were excluded as the causative agent by real-time reverse transcription PCR (rRT-PCR). To identify the cause of the outbreak, serum and whole blood samples from 4 herds in Baden-Württemberg ( Figure 1 ) with acutely diseased cattle were sent by the local state laboratory to the Friedrich-Loeffler-Institut, Germany’s federal research institute for animal health, for further investigations using generic PCR systems and metagenomic analysis.
In total, a serum and a whole blood sample from 27 individual animals from 4 different cattle herds were submitted. Because of the small volume available per sample, we pooled up to 6 samples according to sample matrix and herd, resulting in 16 pools (2 whole blood pools and 2 serum pools for each of the 4 herds). We inoculated the samples onto monkey kidney (Vero) and baby hamster kidney (BHK-21-BSR/5) cells and isolated infectious virus from sample pools from 3 herds on Vero cells and from 1 of those pools additionally on BHK-21-BSR/5. We also extracted nucleic acid from the sample pools with the King Fisher 96 Flex purification system and the NucleoMag Vet Kit (Macherey Nagel, https://www.mn-net.com ) according to the manufacturer’s instructions. Subsequent testing by rRT-PCR for the ruminant orbiviruses bluetongue virus and epizootic hemorrhagic disease virus, morbilliviruses (generic RT-PCR), influenza A and D viruses, bovine ephemeral fever virus, and Hefer Valley virus gave consistently negative results. However, 1…