LAUSR

Louping-ill, a viral encephalomyelitis, principally of sheep but which may also occur in a number of other species and man, is caused by louping-ill virus, a member of the tick-borne encephalitis (TBE) group, in the genus Flavivirus and family Flaviviridae. Originally recognized as an often fatal disease of sheep in the border counties of Scotland and North East England, UK, its name is derived from the old Scots word ‘to loup’, meaning ‘to leap’, a reference to the unusual incoordinated gait seen in afflicted animals. James Hogg, the Ettrick Shepherd, writing in 1807, refers to the long recognised ‘leaping-ill’ and states that it may be confused with other conditions such as ‘the trembling’ and ‘thwarter-ill’. He indicated that shepherds were also aware that these conditions were confined to certain pastures andwere often prevalent in March and April, and that stock reared on pastures free from such conditions would be liable to disease if moved to ‘affected’ grazing, but there was no inkling of why this might or might not be so. A selection of articles on research into louping-ill published in the Journal of Comparative Pathology and its earlier title, the Journal of Comparative Pathology and Therapeutics, is currently available in a Virtual Special Issue (http://www,sciencedirect.com/science/journal/ XXXXX) and highlights the sometimes daunting task of trying to unravel such a complex set of disease circumstances and how understanding was achieved