Following the occurrence of an outbreak of Crimean–Congo
haemorrhagic fever (CCHF)
among workers at an ostrich abattoir in South Africa in 1996, 9 susceptible
young ostriches
were infected subcutaneously with the virus in order to study the nature
of the infection which
they undergo. The ostriches developed viraemia which was
demonstrable on days 1–4 following
infection, with a maximum intensity of 4·0 log10 mouse
intracerebral
LD50/ml being recorded
on day 2 in 1 of the birds. Virus was detectable in visceral organs such
as spleen, liver and
kidney up to day 5 post-inoculation, 1 day after it could no longer be
found in blood. No
infective virus was detected in samples of muscle, but viral
nucleic acid was detected by reverse
transcription-polymerase chain reaction in muscle from a bird sacrificed
on day 3 following
infection. It was concluded that the occurrence of infection in ostriches
at abattoirs could be
prevented by keeping the birds free of ticks for 14 days before slaughter.