Sexual homicide in Australia and New Zealand: a description of offenders, offences and victims.

The field of sexual homicide research is relatively recent, with many existing studies limited by small sample sizes and sampling bias. In Australia and New Zealand specifically, only one study to date addresses this phenomenon but there is a lack of comprehensive descriptive data. This study aims to fill this research gap using a representative sample gathered from public legal databases. A total of 118 cases of sexual homicide offenders are described to create a portrait of this type of offender, their victims and their offence behaviour. Findings are similar to those found in other large samples from the UK, Canada and Germany. Because this crime is rare and practitioners tend to have limited experience of them, the findings of this research have the potential to inform investigative, criminal justice and clinical practice.

[Occurrance of antibodies against Leptospira in horses in Middle Germany]. / Vorkommen von Antikörpern gegen Leptospiren bei Pferden im mitteldeutschen Raum.

Aim of the study was to detect antibodies and potential risk factors for an infec- tion with Leptospira in horses in Middle Germany. Serum samples of 314 horses were examined retrospectively by microscopic agglutination test for the presence of antibodies against eight Leptospira serovars. In total, 17.2% (n = 54) of the horses were positive for one or more of the serovars analyzed. The most prevalent serovar was lcterohaemorrhagiae (11.1%), followed by serovar Bratislava (9.6 %) and Grippotyphosa (1.9%). Mares showed a significantly higher occurrence of antibodies (p < 0.05) than geldings or stallions. Horses used for breeding have a significantly lower risk than horses used in sport or horses used for leisure activity. There was also a significantly higher prevalence (p < 0.05) in summer than in the other seasons. No significant influence of breed, husbandry conditions and age on the antibody occurrence was observed (p > 0.05). The clinical chemical parameters did not differ significantly between horses with positive or negative Leptospira antibody result (p > 0.05). It became apparent that horses can be infected with Leptospira without developing of clinical symptoms.

Bluetongue virus RNA detection by RT-qPCR in blood samples of sheep vaccinated with a commercially available inactivated BTV-8 vaccine.

In 2008, a country-wide bluetongue virus 8 (BTV-8) vaccination campaign has been initiated in Austria, using a single commercial inactivated BTV-8 vaccine. Based on preliminary data, we hypothesised that vaccine-derived BTV RNA is transiently detectable by reverse transcription quantitative real-time PCR (RT-qPCR) in the blood of vaccinated animals. Thus BTV-8 vaccine was administered to five BTV-naïve adult sheep and blood samples were taken at various time-points post-vaccination. BTV RNA was detectable by several RT-qPCR methods in all five animals, mainly within the first 9 days post-vaccination. These results show that RT-qPCR based testing for BTV-infection may be influenced by vaccination with certain inactivated BTV-8 vaccines.