[The hemorrhagic form of acute bovine virus diarrhea: literature review and case report].

Infection of cattle with certain strains of BVD-virus causes a severe thrombocytopenia. The most obvious clinical and pathological lesions are multiple hemorrhages. Until now, problems with the Hemorrhagic syndrome have been reported predominantly from veal calf operations in the U.S.A. This publication presents first a literature review about the Hemorrhagic syndrome. The current data are based upon retrospective studies of field cases and experimental infections. Afterwards clinical, pathological and virological findings from three herds of veal calves in Germany are reported in which hemorrhagic diathesis was observed in calves and BVD-virus was isolated from tissues of diseased calves. The findings in these herds closely resemble the ones described in the literature for the Hemorrhagic syndrome. Therefore, infection with BVD-virus should be considered as differential diagnoses in Germany too, when hemorrhagic diathesis is observed in cattle.