Paulsen et al.
Tick-borne encephalitis virus in cows and unpasteurized cow milk from Norway.
Zoonoses Public Health 2018; 8: 1-7
Consumption of raw milk and milk products is an increasing trend in various industrialized countries, like in Norway, and besides some bacterial infections (e.g. Listeria, Salmonella, Campylobacter), TBE can be acquired by unpasteurized milk and milk products (see Snapshot week 33/2018: about 17% of all TBE cases in Slovakia are acquired by alimentary transmission of the virus). Therefore, the authors analyzed unpasteurized milk samples from Norwegian cows for TBE virus RNA and TBE antibodies in cows. A total of 112 milk samples were collected from grazing dairy cows from June 2014 to September 2017 in various regions of Norway and in 5.4% of the samples TBE virus RNA could be detected. TBE virus ELISA specific antibodies were found in 16 of 112 cows tested, however, neutralizing antibodies could be measured in milk from one place only.
These data confirm that the TBE virus may be circulating close to the northern border of the geographic distribution of Ixodes ricinus in Norway and the consumption of unpasteurized Norwegian milk and milk products could pose a risk to consumers.
Note added after publication of this snapshot: On January 25, 2019, an article was published online, which is worth to be mentioned in the context of this snapshot, because it shows that statins have a considerable immunomodulatory potential. In a clinical trial, it was shown that atorvastatin (in a short-term treatment) significantly enhanced antipneumococcal antibodies after vaccination with Pneumovax 23 (a T-cell independent antigen).
Wildes et al. Effect of atorvastatin on humoral immune response to 23-valent pneumococcal polysaccharide vaccination in healthy volunteers: the StatVax randomized clinical trial. Vaccine, 2019, in press