Shamonda virus (SHAV) was suspected to have been involved in congenital malformations of calves in Kagoshima Prefecture from December 2015 to April 2016. In order to clarify the relationship between the spread of SHAV and the occurrence of malformations in previous years, serological surveys in sentinel and breeding cattle and in malformed calves were performed in Kagoshima Prefecture. Between 1999 and 2016, the spread of SHAV was identified in 2001-2003, 2006, 2013 and 2015, and in utero SHAV infections were detected in three congenital malformed calves in the winter of 2002-2003. After a large SHAV epizootic in 2002, seroprevalence against the virus gradually decreased through breeding, from 66.7% in 2003 to 8.5% in 2014. The low seroprevalence in 2014 might be due to one of the main factors in the spread of SHAV and occurrence of congenital malformations in 2015.

At the end of April 2015, a six-year-old Holstein cow suffered from mastitis in the left fore and rear quarters at a dairy farm in the middle of Yamaguchi Prefecture. It partially recovered after treatment, but relapsed at the beginning of May. Histophilus somni was isolated from a milk sample of the left forequarter with a bacterial count of 1.7×10⁴ CFU/ml. Mastitis became chronic after a series of antibiotic treatments and the affected quarter was permanently dried off in mid-June. One month later, H. somni was not isolated from this cow or other cattle at the farm. Between 1999 and 2015, 23 total H. somni strains were isolated from clinical samples in Yamaguchi Prefecture and were examined by sequence analysis of its major outer membrane protein (MOMP) gene. Phylogenetic analysis of the MOMP gene indicated that the strain in this study was genetically unique from the other 22 strains of H. somni. The current study suggests that mastitis with H. somni is sporadic and has a tendency to become chronic.

A rabbit was presented with respiratory issues and regurgitation, and then died. An autopsy was performed to investigate the pathogenesis and cause of death. The esophagus was diffuse and markedly distended and contained ingesta. Histologically, granulomatous inflammation and perivascular cuffing of inflammatory cells were observed in the central nervous system, including the cerebrum, midbrain, cerebellum, and nucleus ambiguus of the medulla oblongata. A small number of cysts, which were filled with numerous oval spores, approximately 2×1 μm, were scattered throughout the inflammatory lesions. These findings were consistent with encephalitozoonosis. It is suggested that the inflammatory lesions of the nucleus ambiguus on the medulla oblongata were related to esophageal dysfunction, resulting in esophageal dilatation.

Although some municipalities provide meat inspection data to each producer to promote hygienic meat production, few studies relating to the relationship between meat inspection results and rearing environment have been reported. While analysis of the relationship is difficult because both sets of data are multidimensional, principal component analysis (PCA) can overcome the problem as it can reduce the number of dimensions in the data. Therefore, we performed PCA to create three indices related to the condemnation of fattening pigs' organs, number of offspring per sow and pre-weaning mortality rate from multidimensional data containing meat inspection data. Then we conducted multiple regression analysis to examine the relationship between these indices and rearing environments based on questionnaire results. As a result of creating a generalized linear mixed model for the relationship between rearing environments, it confirmed the significant effect on multiple regression analysis and data before PCA, six variables in all-in-all-out, days after the date of birth and tail docking were suggested to be key determinants.